IERI/REC: Planning an Infrastructure to Support Ambitious Science for Urban School Children

这项计划拨款提案将审查最有可能帮助城市环境中的儿童成为更成功的“雄心勃勃的”科学学习者的专业发展经验。为此，pi将创建一个数据系统，详细说明教师的成长机会如何转化为儿童的学习成果。这项工作的模型从实际的课堂实践开始，然后检查学生的成长（由成就测试分数定义）和导致学生成功学习的各种发展经验。具体而言，规划拨款与完善和发展新的学生学习措施；制定专业发展经验编码计划；完善和整理PIs现有的课堂实践分析方案；并使用测试用例来探索方法的可行性。小组总结：小组对这项研究的重要性和范围充满热情，并特别赞成提案中关于颁布和变革概念化的想法。专家组提出的担忧包括：考虑到18个月的时间框架，该项目非常雄心勃勃；该建议在方法论和理论上都缺乏细节。但是，小组成员理解，在规划赠款中，某些概念必然有些模糊。另一个令人关切的问题包括私人机构对其他研究项目的承诺。分析：小组成员认为这是一项计划拨款，有可能在教师专业发展和学生学习之间的联系方面产生重要的新措施和理解。这些pi都是非常合格的。尽管对项目的野心和潜在理论和方法的某些方面的模糊性表示担忧，但项目官员同意专家组的观点，即这项规划拨款有望为学校和那些对科学改革感兴趣的人提供有用的信息。然而，在提交完整的提案时，pi应注意解决审查中提出的问题。项目主任建议：根据小组审查中收到的评分、书面审查中的意见、小组讨论和上述分析，我建议将该提案作为标准赠款资助18个月，数额为278,504美元。

This planning grant proposal will examine the professional development experiences that are most likely to help children in urban settings to be more successful learners of "ambitious" science. To do so, the PIs will create a data system that allows for detailed articulation of the ways that teachers' opportunities for growth translate into learning outcomes for children. The model for the work begins with actual classroom practices, then examines student growth (defined by achievement test scores) and the kinds of development experiences that result in successful student learning. Specifically, the planning grant with refine and develop new measures of student learning; develop a coding scheme for professional development experiences; refine and codify the PIs existing scheme for analyzing classroom practice; and use test cases to explore the feasibility of the methodology.Panel Summary: The panel was enthusiastic about the importance and scope of the study and viewed the ideas about enactment and the conceptualization of change in the proposal particularly favorably. The concerns raised by the panel included: the project is very ambitious given the eighteen-month timeframe; and the proposal is short on detail in both methodology and theory. However, panelists understood that some of the conceptualizations would necessarily be somewhat vague in a planning grant.An additional concern included the commitment of the PIs in other research projects. Analysis: The panelists felt that this was a planning grant with potential to yield important new measures and understandings regarding links between teacher professional development and student learning. The PIs are highly qualified. In spite of concerns about the ambition of the project and the vagueness of some aspects of the underlying theory and methodology, the Program Officer agrees with the panel that this planning grant holds great promise for producing information that will be helpful to schools and those interested in science reform. However, the PIs should take care to address the concerns raised in the review in the submission of a full proposal.Program Director Recommendation: Based on the ratings received in the panel review, the comments contained in the written reviews, the panel discussion, and the analysis described above, I recommend that this proposal be funded for 18 months as a standard grant at the level of $278,504.