Empowering Changemakers: Urban Biodiversity Initiative for Teachers and Youth

该项目将设计、开发和测试一种基于研究的专业发展(PD)方法，该方法将确保教师，最终是他们的中学生，拥有以促进社区生物多样性零净损失的方式采取行动的知识。该项目将在9个学校站点为54名教师、学生和管理人员提供服务。通过参与PD，教师将有能力计划和实施NGSS(下一代科学标准)教学，促进学生识别和了解当地社区的生物多样性和环境正义问题，并培养学生采取行动的能力。学生们将逐渐认识到生物多样性是一个他们可以在地方层面上施加影响的全球问题，并将在他们的知识和他们的机构中被赋予权力，成为解决社区生物多样性问题的领导者。学生不会简单地遵循成年人制定的议程，而是凭借自己的能力成为问题的识别者和解决者。为了支持这一点，该项目将通过支持教师以学生文化能力(即学习者给课堂带来的东西)的资产观为中心，并承认学习者的文化深刻影响学习机会，从而创造公平的学习机会。该项目涉及一个多机构合作伙伴关系，包括WestEd研究团队和K-12联盟、加州大学洛杉矶分校、多古德雷大学、洛杉矶环卫和环境研究所以及学习政策研究所。该项目将利用有针对性和广泛的传播，通过会议、出版物和简报会，与教师、管理人员、教育组织和领导人、环境组织和政策制定者分享项目研究成果和资源。WestEd.org将出版一本包括项目工具和流程的“剧本”，以支持教师、教师领导者和公共部门提供商。该项目将从多个来源收集数据，以确定PD模式对教师、管理人员和学生的信念、知识和成就的影响程度。该项目将研究教师和学生对NGSS、环境素养和环境正义问题的知识如何随着时间的推移而变化，以及PL的接受者如何将材料和教学方法融入他们的实践中。研究问题将通过使用多基线设计来解决，使用交错实施干预的前后措施来衡量教师、管理人员和学生的结果。将采用混合方法研究方法，以确定在已确定的群体中干预的定性结果，并将这些数据与量化结果衡量标准进行三角划分。定性的开放式调查和访谈数据，以及全面的课程捕获、教师教学日志、3D形成性评估和概念图也将被分析，以描述对教师、管理者和学生理解的影响。对于测量前/测量后的量化分析，该项目将使用协方差分析(ANCOVA)来比较学生、管理人员和教师调查中的所有回答，以确定对干预预期影响的结构的感知理解是否随着时间的推移而改变。由此产生的分析将为PD的潜在修订提供信息。探索研究PREK-12计划(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-K-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。 -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经验上的证明。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 project will design, develop, and test a research-based professional development (PD) approach that will ensure that teachers, and ultimately their middle-school students, have the knowledge to act in a way that promotes zero net loss of biodiversity in their communities. The project will serve 54 teachers, their students and administrators, across nine school sites. Through their participation in the PD, teachers will be equipped to plan for and implement NGSS-aligned (Next Generation Science Standards) instruction, facilitate student identification and understanding of biodiversity and environmental justice issues in their local community, and foster student capacity to take action. Students will come to understand that biodiversity is a global issue that they can influence at the local level, and will become empowered, in both their knowledge and their agency, to be leaders in solving biodiversity problems in their communities. Rather than simply following agendas set by adults, students will become problem identifiers and solvers in their own right. To support this, the project will create equitable learning opportunities by supporting teachers in centering on an asset view of students’ cultural competence (i.e., what learners bring to the classroom) and in acknowledging that a learner’s culture profoundly influences opportunities to learn. The project involves a multi-agency partnership including the WestEd research team and K-12 Alliance, the University of California, Los Angeles, DoGoodery, Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment, and the Learning Policy Institute. The project will use targeted and wide dissemination to share project research results and resources with teachers, administrators, and educational organizations and leaders, environmental organizations and policy makers through conferences, publications, and briefings. A “playbook” including project tools and processes will be published by WestEd.org to support teachers, teacher leaders and PL providers.The project will gather data from multiple sources to determine the extent to which the PD model influences beliefs, knowledge, and achievement of teachers, administrators, and students. The project will examine how knowledge of the NGSS, environmental literacy, and environmental justice issues amonjg teachers and students change over time and how recipients of PL incorporate materials and pedagogy into their practice. Research questions will be addressed by utilizing a Multiple Baseline Design, using pre- and post-measures with staggered implementation of the intervention, to measure teacher, administrator, and student outcomes. A mixed-methods research approach will be applied to ascertain the qualitative outcomes of the intervention in the identified groups and these data will be triangulated with the quantitative outcome measures. Qualitative open-ended survey and interview data, as well as comprehensive curriculum captures, teacher instructional logs, 3D formative assessments, and concept maps, will also be analyzed to describe impacts on teachers’, administrators’, and students’ understanding. For the quantitative analyses of pre-/post- measures, the project will use an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to compare all responses on the student, administrator, and teacher surveys, to determine whether perceived understandings of the constructs that the intervention is anticipated to impact changed over time. The resulting analysis will inform potential revisions to the PD. 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.