Online Science Teacher Professional Development: Optimization of Asynchronous Learning Models

该项目将比较和评估针对小学科学教师的在线专业发展交付的不同模式。重点放在异步(随时随地)和最小便利模式上，因为这些方法有望以经济高效的方式接触到大量教师。这项研究利用了BCM屡获殊荣、面向教育工作者的高流量网站BioEd Online的经验。该项目将调查：1)哪些非同步在线专业发展教学方法对教师和学生的科学学习贡献最大；2)将课堂经验和讨论与非同步在线学习联系起来是否显著提高了教师和学生的学习；以及3)不同教学模式的有效性是否因教师群体(人口统计、专业等)而异。其目的是：1)比较四种不同的生命科学和物理科学在线教学模式的有效性(教学模式包括：纯音频；带幻灯片的视频内容演示；嵌入在线互动案例中的内容；以及嵌入视频课程演示的内容)；2)调查在完成四种教学模式之一后，让教师讲授探究性课程并参加讨论论坛是否有助于更大的知识获取；3)检查教师的知识收获和将知识应用于新问题的能力；以及按内容领域(生活或物理科学)、交付方式和教师人口统计进行数据分解；4)通过采访科学教师专业发展的在线提供者，收集有关正在使用的异步模型的定性数据；5)综合并报告调查结果，为当前和未来的在线提供提供信息。在线专业发展有潜力满足大量农村和城市教师对高质量内容和基于标准的教学方法的需求。通过基于Web的教学，可以方便地访问内容、内容专家、资源以及参与教师-学习者社区。更广泛的影响。基于网络的专业发展消除了与距离、时间或当地课程可获得性有关的障碍，可以为大量教师提供服务。多达150万小学教师现在或不久的将来可能需要最新的科学专业发展。越来越多的证据表明，基于网络的教学可以与传统教学一样有效，即使对新手用户也是如此。这项研究将为科学领域的异步、基于网络的教学提供信息，并有助于设计最佳实践模式，以满足小学教师在线专业发展的需求。

This project will compare and evaluate different models for the delivery of online professional development aimed at elementary science teachers. The focus is on asynchronous (anytime, anywhere) and minimally facilitated models, because these approaches hold promise for reaching large numbers of teachers in a cost-effective way. The research capitalizes on experiences with BCM's award-winning, high traffic website for educators, BioEd Online. The project will investigate: 1) which asynchronous online professional development delivery methods contribute most strongly to teacher and student science learning; 2) whether linking classroom experiences and discussions to asynchronous online learning significantly enhances teacher and student learning; and 3) whether the effectiveness of different delivery models varies among subpopulations of teachers (demographics, specialization, etc.). The objectives are to: 1) compare the effectiveness of four different online delivery modes for both life and physical science (delivery modes consist of: audio only; video content presentation with slides; content embedded in an online interactive case; and content embedded in video lesson demonstration); 2) investigate whether having teachers teach an inquiry lesson and take part in a discussion forum after completing one of the four delivery modes contributes to greater knowledge gains; 3) examine teacher knowledge gains and abilities to apply knowledge to new problems and student lesson-specific knowledge gains; and disaggregate data by content area (life or physical science), delivery mode and teacher demographics; 4) collect qualitative data about asynchronous models in use by interviewing online providers of science teacher professional development; 5) synthesize and report findings to inform current and future online offerings.Intellectual Merit. Online professional development has potential to meet the needs of large numbers of rural and urban teachers for high quality content and standards-based teaching approaches. Web-based delivery offers convenient access to content, content experts, resources, and participation in communities of teacher-learners. Broader Impacts. Web-based professional development removes barriers related to distance, time or and local course availability and can serve large numbers of teachers. As many as 1.5 million elementary teachers may need up-to-date science professional development now or in the near future. There is mounting evidence that web-based instruction can be as effective as traditional instruction, even for novice users. The research will inform the field of asynchronous, web-based instruction in science and contribute to the design of best practice models to meet elementary teachers' professional development needs online.