Determining Teachers baseline practice and alignment prior to a systemic curriculum change

这项研究的目的是记录巴尔的摩市公立学校在系统整合下一代科学标准(NGSS)之前的当前教学实践。在这项研究中，UMBC将与巴尔的摩市公立学校(城市学校)合作，收集和记录教师课堂实践，然后实施扩展的专业发展模式，目标是与下一代科学标准相关的教学技能。该项目的广泛目标是描述利用受控实践教学作为教师专业发展的关键组成部分，在中学科学课堂上整合NGSS一致性实践的好处和局限性。成功的衡量标准是教师态度的改变、教师教学技能的提高和学生的学习收益。巴尔的摩市的60名教师和4500多名学生将通过拟议的专业发展和课程制定努力受到直接影响。作为该项目的正式合作伙伴，城市学校的领导层还将了解在代表其不同学区的学校中，什么是有效的，对谁有效，在什么条件下有效。吸取的经验教训有可能为在城市学校内外实施其他新的改革举措提供信息。这项拟议的研究结果有可能促进我们对创新的专业发展战略及其对课堂实践和学生学习的影响的理解。本项目侧重于国家对高质量专业发展模式的需求，这些模式直接将特定战略与基于课堂的教学变化和学生学习结果联系在一起。课堂实践中的一个特殊转变是科学话语和论证，这是实施NGSS课堂教学的根本。支持教师使用支持辩论的策略的一种特殊策略是使用受控实践教学。本研究采用准实验设计，明确研究了控制性实践教学的影响。研究计划包括将中等科学教师分配到两个实验条件(包括或不包括受控实践教学部分的PD)中的一个，然后调查两种处理之间的潜在差异，以及与对NGSS的态度变化、课堂实践和对学生学习的影响有关的控制条件。研究人员假设，与不包含控制实践部分的持续专业发展相比，包含在可持续专业发展计划中的控制实践教学将更有效地促进与NGSS保持一致的教师教学技能的发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this research is to document current teaching practices prior to the systemic integration of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in Baltimore City Public schools. In this study, UMBC will collaborate with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) to collect and document teacher classroom practices prior to the implementation of an extended professional development model that targets pedagogical skills associated with the Next Generation Science Standards. The broad objective of the project is to characterize the benefits and limitations of utilizing controlled practice-teaching as a key component of teacher professional development for integrating NGSS aligned practices in middle school science classrooms. Success will be measured by changes in teacher attitudes, enhancement of teacher pedagogical skills and student learning gains. Sixty teachers, and over 4,500 students in Baltimore City will be directly impacted through the professional development and curriculum enactment efforts proposed. As a full partner in the project, the City Schools' leadership will also learn what works, for whom, and under what conditions in schools that are representative of their diverse district. Lessons learned have the potential to inform the implementation of other new reform initiatives within City Schools and beyond. Findings from the proposed research have the potential to advance our understanding of innovative professional development strategies and their impact on classroom practices and student learning.This project focuses on a national need of models for high quality professional development that directly tie specific strategies to classroom-based instructional changes and student learning outcomes. One particular shift in classroom practice that is fundamental for the classroom implementation of NGSS is scientific discourse and argumentation. One particular strategy that has shown promise for supporting teachers' use of strategies supporting argumentation is the use of controlled practice teaching. The proposed study explicitly attempts to determine the impact of the controlled practice-teaching using a quasi-experimental design. The research plan involves middle science teachers being assigned to one of two experimental conditions (PD including or excluding a controlled practice-teaching component) and then to investigate potential differences among the two treatments and control conditions related to changes in attitudes toward NGSS, classroom practices and impact on student learning. The researcher hypothesizes that the inclusion of control-practice teaching that is imbedded in a sustained professional development program will promote the development of teacher pedagogical skills aligned with NGSS more effectively than sustained professional development that does not include a control-practice component.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.