Supporting teacher customizations of curriculum materials for equitable student sensemaking in secondary science

该项目正在开发和研究工具，以支持教师的教学转变，在中学科学课堂上实现公平的意义建构。意义建构涉及学生构建和使用科学思想来解决他们发现的问题和问题，而不仅仅是学习其他人所做的科学。尽管这是最近的国家政策文件的中心目标，但在许多教室中，这种与科学知识建设的有意义的参与仍然难以实现。来自非主导社区的学生往往不认为自己是“科学人”，因为他们的认识方式和经验在科学课堂上往往不受重视。以教师使用创新的高质量课程材料为基础的专业学习可以帮助教师以新的方式学习教学。然而，教师需要指导来定制课程材料，以适应他们自己的当地情况，并在保持最近政策文件目标的同时利用学生的想法和经验。该项目正在研究和开发定制工具，以支持教师在课堂上有原则地使用和调整材料。这些定制工具将帮助教师更好地注意和利用非优势学生的想法和经验，以支持所有学生公平地进行意义构建。在项目期间，来自不同学校的74名教师将使用这些定制工具参与专业学习。测试后，定制工具和说明性案例将广泛传播，以支持教师制定任何科学课程，利用学生带入课堂的想法和经验。此外，以设计原则形式的研究成果将为未来科学课程教材和专业学习资源的设计提供信息。科学教育改革工作的一个关键要素包括改变课堂上的认知和权力结构，以便教师和学生共同努力建立知识。研究表明，科学教学的转变对教师来说是一个挑战。研究人员和实践者合作开发了课程材料，开始支持教师开展这项工作。但是教师需要根据自己的情况来解释这些材料，并根据自己的学生来定制任务和策略。课程制定不是规定性的，而是教师、课程材料、学生和情境之间的一种“参与性关系”，教师对课程材料和改革目标进行解读，并对其进行定制，以适应任务和活动结构，以满足学生的需求，并利用学生的资源。该领域需要更好地了解教师如何从这种参与性关系中学习和驾驭，以及哪些支持可以帮助这项工作。该项目将包括基于设计的研究，检查教师的定制过程，并开发工具，以支持教师根据自己的具体学校环境调整课程材料，促进所有学生公平地进行科学理解，让所有学生都参与到雄心勃勃的科学知识建设中来。本研究计划的主要内容包括：(1)教师定制过程的实证研究；(2)课程教材定制背后的教师思维与学习理论模型；(3)支持符合改革目标的原则定制的工具；(4)工具对教师定制过程的影响实证研究。该项目正在解决为教师学习提供可扩展支持的迫切需求，以应对最近科学教育在解决问题和公平方面的转变。探索研究preK-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preK-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 is developing and researching tools to support teachers’ instructional shifts to achieve equitable sensemaking in middle school science classrooms. Sensemaking involves students building and using science ideas to address questions and problems they identify, rather than solely learning about the science others have done. Despite it being a central goal of recent national policy documents, such meaningful engagement with science knowledge building remains elusive in many classrooms. Students from non-dominant communities frequently do not see themselves as “science people” because their ways of knowing and experiences are often not valued in science classrooms. Professional learning grounded in teachers’ use of innovative high quality curriculum materials can help teachers learn to teach in new ways. Yet teachers need guidance to customize curriculum materials to fit their own local contexts and leverage students’ ideas and experiences while maintaining the goals of recent policy documents. This project is researching and developing customization tools to support teachers in their principled use and adaptation of materials for their classrooms. These customization tools will help teachers to better notice and leverage the ideas and experiences of non-dominant students to support all students in equitable sensemaking. During the project, 74 teachers from diverse schools will participate in professional learning using these customization tools. After testing, the customization tools and illustrative cases will be disseminated broadly to support teachers enacting any science curriculum in leveraging the ideas and experiences that students bring into the classroom. In addition, the research results in the form of design principles will inform future design of curriculum materials and professional learning resources for science.A key element in science education reform efforts includes shifting the epistemic and power structures in the classroom so that teachers and students work together to build knowledge. Research shows that shifts in science teaching are challenging for teachers. Researchers and practitioners have collaborated to develop curriculum materials that begin to support teachers in this work. But teachers need to interpret these materials and customize the tasks and strategies for their own context as they work with their own students. Curriculum enactment is not prescriptive, but rather a “participatory relationship” between the teacher, curriculum materials, students and context, where teachers interpret the materials and the goals of the reform, and customize them to adapt the tasks and activity structures to meet the needs and leverage the resources of their students. The field needs to better understand how teachers learn from and navigate this participatory relationship and what supports can aid in this work. This project will include design-based research examining teachers’ customization processes and the development of tools to support teachers in adapting curriculum materials for their specific school context to facilitate equitable science sensemaking for all students, where all students engage in ambitious science knowledge building. The major components of the research program will include: (1) Empirical study of teachers’ customization processes; (2) Theoretical model of teacher thinking and learning that underlies customization of curriculum materials; (3) Tools to support principled customization consistent with the goals of the reform; and (4) Empirical study of how tools influence teachers’ customization processes. The project is addressing the urgent need for scalable support for teacher learning for recent shifts in science education in relation to both a vision of figuring out and equity. The Discovery Research preK-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.