Locally Adaptable Instructional Materials and Professional Learning Design for Place-Based Elementary Science

该项目满足了对高质量基础科学学习体验日益增长的需求，帮助学生了解他们的世界——将他们熟悉的景观、现象、社区和文化联系起来。目前，许多为满足下一代科学标准（NGSS）的期望而设计的广泛使用的课程单元没有与当地现象联系起来。结合当地现象的单位通常是由社区成员从头开始开发的，需要大量的时间和资源，而这些时间和资源并不普遍可用。为了支持公平获得基于地的科学学习机会，该项目将与BSCS科学学习合作，开发并测试一个模型，以支持三至五年级教师将与当地或文化相关的基于地的现象纳入经过严格测试的课程单元，以满足NGSS的期望。项目团队将开发两个单元，可在全国任何地区使用，为教师提供内置机会和嵌入式支持，以有目的地调整课程，使其包括当地现象。面对面和虚拟的专业学习经验将进一步帮助那些在科学方面获得有限地区支持的教师将基于地点的方法纳入其中。参与的教师将来自加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州和缅因州的农村和城市环境，以确保该项目的最终产品具有相关性、可扩展性，适合全国各地的广泛学生。这个项目探讨了如何设计教学资源，既重视严谨和标准化，同时又融入当地的文化相关性。该项目的目标是：1)为3-5年级的科学设计、测试、修订和传播两套适合当地的教学资源包，包括教育课程材料和支持专业学习；2)以设计为基础的研究，检视教师如何运用单元资源和专业学习经验，将本地现象纳入课程和教学；3)研究课程适应过程如何支持教师对单位内科学理念和现象的理解，教师在科学教学中的能动性和自我效能感信念，以及学生对科学学习的相关性和兴趣的感知。在两轮单元实施之前、期间和之后的数据将从各个地理位置的50个教室中收集。数据将包括每周教学日志、教师调查、教师自我效能测量、教师代理和学生电子离校票。此外，每单元有6名范例案例研究教师，这将有助于更深入地了解课程适应模式融入当地现象的潜力。案例研究数据将包括教师制定后的访谈、课堂观察和学生焦点小组。该项目的设计和研究将促进该领域对如何设计符合NGSS期望的教学材料和专业学习经验的了解，同时也使教师能够利用当地或文化相关现象，以富有成效的方式调整材料。探索研究K-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pre -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 addresses the growing need for high quality elementary science learning experiences that help students understand their worlds - connecting to landscapes, phenomena, communities, and cultures with which they are familiar. Currently, many curricular units designed for widespread use to meet the expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) do not connect to local phenomena. Units that do incorporate local phenomena are often developed from the ground up by community members, requiring extensive time and resources that are not widely available. To support equitable access to place-based science learning opportunities, this project, in collaboration with BSCS Science Learning, will develop and test a model to support 3rd-5th grade teachers in incorporating locally or culturally relevant place-based phenomena into rigorously tested curricular units that meet the expectations of the NGSS. The project team will develop two units that could be used in any region across the country with built-in opportunities and embedded supports for teachers to purposefully adapt curriculum to include local phenomena. In-person and virtual professional learning experiences will further help teachers who have limited district support for science to incorporate place-based approaches. Participating teachers will range from rural and urban settings in California, Colorado, and Maine to ensure the end products of this project are relevant, scalable, appropriate for a wide range of students across the country. This project investigates how to design instructional resources that value rigor and standardization while at the same time incorporating the cultural relevancy of place. The project goals are to: 1) design, test, revise, and disseminate two locally adaptable instructional resource packages for grades 3-5 science that include educative curriculum materials and supporting professional learning; 2) use design-based research to examine how teachers apply unit resources and professional learning experiences to incorporate local phenomena into the curriculum and their teaching; and 3) examine how the process of curriculum adaptation can support teacher understanding of the science ideas and phenomena within the units, teacher agency and self-efficacy beliefs in teaching science, and student perceptions of relevance and interest in science learning. Data from before, during, and after two rounds of unit enactments will be collected from 50 classrooms per unit across a range of geographic locations. Data will include weekly instructional logs, teacher surveys, measures of teacher self-efficacy and teacher agency and student electronic exit tickets. In addition, six exemplar case study teachers per unit will inform a deeper understanding of the potential of a curriculum adaptation model for incorporating local phenomena. Case study data will include teacher post-enactment interviews, classroom observations, and student focus groups. The design and research from this project will advance the field’s knowledge about how to design instructional materials and professional learning experiences that meet the expectations of the NGSS while also empowering teachers to adapt materials in productive ways, drawing on locally or culturally relevant phenomena.The Discovery Research K-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.