A Professional Development Model for High School Teachers to Adapt Curricula toward Students' Knowledges and Resources

该项目将教育研究人员、高中科学教师、研究科学家和社区组织作为共同设计团队，共同修改科学课程材料，使其面向正义和社区。在伊利诺伊州两个地区的教育研究人员和11名科学教师之间现有的合作伙伴关系的基础上，项目团队将在3年的时间里进行课程分析和适应的循环。这些专业学习周期将发展与教学相关的内容专门知识，例如加深对当地相关科学现象的理解，以及社区参与科学教学的基础设施。这种科学教学为学生提供了解决社区需求的机会，从而为科学提供了相关的切入点，潜在地鼓励学生从事科学事业。每年，2250名学生将体验至少一个适应单元，在项目的整个生命周期内，将有超过6500名学生接触到这样的科学方向。此外，通过与科学部门合作3年，支持他们已经使用的材料的改编，教师将培养在项目生命周期之外分析和调整课程的技能，从而影响更多的学生群体。该项目将开发和传播框架、工具和样本适应单元，以支持美国各地的类似伙伴关系。本研究将考察伊利诺斯州的两个地区作为比较案例，因为每个地区教师专业学习的杠杆和切入点的背景差异而进行了战略性选择。这种意向结构可以收集经验支持，以证明专业学习共同设计计划的核心要素对教师和学生学习的有效性。测量的学习成果包括：(a)教师使用符合ngss的科学教学法的频率；（二）教师批判意识的培养；(c)教师对文化维持型科学教学法的自我效能感；(d)学生的科学认识论和批判性科学能动性。该研究将阐明专业学习模型的变量和不变元素，提供理论泛化性，告知该模型如何在其他环境中扩展。最后，本研究将考察研究团队如何在内部和协同设计团队之间建立能力，以制定专业学习计划目标。这些分析将为在其他环境中建立和维持这样的协同设计团队提供原则和建议。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project brings together education researchers, high school science teachers, research scientists, and community-based organizations as co-design teams to modify science curriculum materials to be justice- and community-oriented. Building on existing partnerships between education researchers and 11 science teachers in two districts in Illinois, project teams will engage in cycles of curriculum analysis and adaptation over the course of 3 years. These professional learning cycles will develop pedagogically relevant content expertise, such as deepened understanding of locally relevant science phenomena, as well as infrastructure for community-engaged science instruction. This kind of science instruction provides relevant entry points into science by providing opportunities for students to address their communities' needs, potentially encouraging students to pursue careers in science. Each year, 2,250 students will experience at least one adapted unit, resulting in over 6,500 individual encounters with such an orientation to science over the lifespan of the project. Moreover, by working with science departments for 3 years to support adaptations of the materials they already use, teachers will develop skills for analyzing and adapting curricula beyond the lifespan of the project, impacting additional cohorts of students. The project will develop and disseminate frameworks, tools, and sample adapted units to support similar partnerships across the US.This study will examine two Illinois districts as comparative cases, strategically selected because of the contextual variation in the levers and entry points for teacher professional learning at each site. This intentional structure enables collection of empirical support for the effectiveness of core elements of the professional learning co-design program on teacher and student learning. Measured learning outcomes include: (a) teachers' frequency of use of NGSS-aligned science pedagogies; (b) development of teachers' critical consciousness; (c) teachers' self-efficacy for culturally sustaining pedagogies in science; and (d) students' epistemologies for science and critical science agency. The research will illuminate variant and invariant elements of the professional learning model, providing theoretical generalizability informing how the model could scale in additional contexts. Finally, the study will examine how the research team builds capacity, both internally and amongst co-design teams, for enacting the professional learning program objectives. These analyses will provide principles and recommendations for establishing and sustaining such co-design teams in other contexts. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.