CAREER: Educative Learning Progressions as Tools for Teacher Development (ELEvATE)

本研究的目的是为高中生物教师和学生设计的教育学习进阶如何用于改善教学，从而提高学生的学习成绩提供“存在性证明”。学习进程由一系列越来越复杂的思想组成，这些思想旨在指导特定科学主题或“大思想”的课程和评估发展。本研究的重点是为学生理解自然选择设计一个具有教育意义的学习进阶；即提高教师对自然选择的理解，加深对学生学习难的原因的理解。在探究式的环境中，学习进展作为教师的支撑，不仅帮助他们预测学生的想法，而且还建议针对这些想法量身定制的教学策略。PI将与科罗拉多州一个大地区不同学校的两所高中的大约12名生物教师合作，对这种教育学习进程进行为期五年的研究项目。本研究将以三个研究问题为指导：参与学习进阶如何影响教师设计教学体验的能力，以及识别和回应学生思维的能力？-通过重复使用教育学习进阶，教师的实践如何随着时间的推移而变化？-教师对学习进阶的参与如何影响学生的学习？该项目以两所学校的12名生物教师为重点，包括5年约35节生物课，每班约25名学生，共计约900名学生。该项目为教师在一年级的教学实践建立了基线数据，并通过对每位教师所教的每门课的学生自然选择理解的前后评估来衡量学生的学习情况。在接下来的几年里，该研究将使用多种方法跟踪和测量教师在讲授自然选择时课堂实践的变化。目的是了解教师教学实践的变化是否与学生对进化论学习的变化有关。该研究使用HLM对每年的学生成长进行建模，并使用教师内容和教学策略代码对每位教师的成长进行建模，以预测学生的成绩。一个强大的顾问委员会指导这项研究的评估。这项研究很重要，因为人们对学习进阶的发展越来越感兴趣，因为它可以指导标准、评估、课程和教学的发展。然而，到目前为止，还没有关于学习进阶如何作为指导教学的深入研究，也没有关于以学习进阶为中心的持续专业发展如何改善课堂实践和学生学习成果的深入研究。这项研究可以让这个领域了解学生如何学习自然选择，以及教师如何更有效地教授自然选择。通过这些贡献，它还将为新课程材料的设计提供启示，并为重点、复杂和有效的专业发展提供指导。

The goal of this study is to produce an "existence proof" of how an educative learning progression designed for high school biology teachers and their students can be used to improve instruction, and as a consequence, improve student outcomes. A learning progression consists of sequences of increasingly sophisticated ideas intended as guides for curriculum and assessment development for a particular science topic or "big idea". The study focuses on a learning progression for student understanding of natural selection designed to be educative; that is, to improve teachers' understanding of natural selection and deepen their understanding of why it is difficult for students to learn. The learning progression serves as a scaffold for teachers in inquiry-based settings by helping them to anticipate not only the ideas that students have, but also suggest instructional strategies tailored to these ideas. The PI would partner with about 12 biology teachers in two high schools in diverse schools in a large Colorado district to conduct this five-year research project on this educative learning progression. This study will be guided by three research questions:-How does engagement with the learning progression impact teachers' ability to design instructional experiences, as well as recognize and respond to student thinking?-How do teachers' practices change over time through repeated use of the educative learning progression?-How does teachers' engagement with the learning progression impact student learning?This project focuses on 12 biology teachers at two schools, and includes about 35 biology classes over five years with about 25 students per class, for a total of about 900 students. The project establishes baseline data for teachers' instructional practice in Year 1, and measures student learning with a pre-post assessment of students' natural selection understanding for each class taught by each teacher. In the following years, the study would track and measure changes in teachers' classroom practices when teaching natural selection, using a multiple methods approach. The goal is to see whether changes in teachers' instructional practices are associated with changes in student learning about evolution. The study uses HLM to model student growth for each year, and models growth for each teacher using teacher content and instructional strategies codes to predict student outcomes. A strong advisory board guides the evaluation of this research.This study is important because of increasing interest in the development of learning progressions as guides for the development of standards, assessments, and curriculum and instruction. However, to date, there have been no close studies of how a learning progression can serve as a guide for instruction or how sustained professional development centered on a learning progression can improve classroom practice and student learning outcomes. This study can inform the field about how students learn natural selection, and how teachers may come to teach it more effectively. Through these contributions, it will also provide implications for the design of new curriculum materials and guidance for focused, sophisticated, and effective professional development.