Developing and Testing a Learning Progression for Middle School Physical Science incorporating Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts

该项目将开发和测试中学物理科学的学习进度，该进度包含了下一代科学标准（NGSS）中确定的三个维度：物质、相互作用和能量的学科核心思想；构建解释、开发和使用模型的科学与工程实践；以及因果、系统和系统模型的横切概念。将所有三个NGSS维度结合在一起是一项创新，它允许该项目探索学生在应用科学知识和实践来理解引人注目的现象或解决复杂问题时可能遵循的各种学习途径。这有可能帮助教师、研究人员和课程开发者改进他们对学生的支持。来自代表不同社区的一系列学校的中学科学教师将接受专业学习和指导，使用学习进度来调整当地的课程和教学材料。该项目将考察学生在一段时间内的学习成长，以及教师如何利用学习进展来支持学生的学习。该项目通过探索如何支持教师创造公平和连贯的学习环境，促进所有学生在科学问题解决和意义理解方面的发展，服务于国家利益。该项目通过两种方式推进学习进阶的研究：开发和测试与NGSS一致的三维学习进阶，以及探索所提出的学习进阶中的各种学习途径。该项目探讨了三个研究问题：1)基于理论的学习进阶如何随着教师和学生的经验证据和专家的反馈而改变？2)教师如何使用学习进阶来调整他们的课程材料、教学和评估，以提高学生使用中的知识？3)在以学习进阶为基础的适应性课堂中，学生的知识运用以何种方式、如何发展？为了解决这些问题，该项目将在三年内使用定性和定量数据源设计、修改并最终确定学习进度。利用学生对课堂嵌入式评估任务的反应数据，研究人员将采用潜在增长曲线模型来检验学生在用知识的发展。利用来自师生访谈、课堂观察和师生文物的数据，研究人员将开发一个案例研究，探讨教师对学习进阶的使用，以及他们如何使学习进阶适应当地的课程、教学和评估材料，以支持学生的学习。本个案亦将探讨教师适应是否及如何影响学生发展。通过以连贯的方式指导课程、教学、评估和专业学习的发展，为所有学生提供学习科学的机会，并支持教师改善当地的科学学习系统，学习进度将有助于科学的教与学。该项目的研究成果将扩展目前关于学习进阶的知识和研究，为三维学习提供多种中间学习途径，为所有学生提供学习科学的机会。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 will develop and test a learning progression for middle school physical science that incorporates the three dimensions identified in Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS): the Disciplinary Core Ideas of matter, interaction, and energy; the Science and Engineering Practices of constructing explanations and developing and using models; and the Crosscutting Concepts of cause and effect and systems and system models. Bringing together all three NGSS dimensions is an innovation that allows for the project to explore the variety of learning pathways that students may follow as they apply scientific knowledge and practices to make sense of compelling phenomena or solve complex problems. This has the potential to help teachers, researchers, and curriculum developers improve how they support students. Participating middle school science teachers from a range of schools representing diverse communities will receive professional learning and guidelines using the learning progression to adapt their local curriculum and instruction materials. The project will examine students' learning growth over time and how teachers use the learning progression to support their students’ learning. This project serves the national interest by exploring how to support teachers in creating equitable and coherent learning environments and promoting all students' development in problem-solving and sense-making in science. This project advances research on learning progressions in two ways: by developing and testing a three-dimensional learning progression consistent with NGSS, and by exploring a variety of learning pathways within the proposed learning progression. The project explores three research questions: 1) How does the theoretically grounded learning progression change as a result of empirical evidence from teachers and students and feedback from experts? 2) In what ways do teachers use the learning progression to adapt their curriculum materials, instruction, and assessments to improve student knowledge-in-use? 3) In what ways and how do students' knowledge-in-use develop in the learning progression-based adapted classrooms? To address these questions, the project will design, revise, and finalize the learning progression iteratively using both qualitative and quantitative data sources across three years. Using data from students’ responses to classroom-embedded assessment tasks, the researchers will employ latent growth curve models to examine student knowledge-in-use development. Using data from teacher and student interviews, classroom observations, and teacher and student artifacts, the researchers will develop a case study that explores teachers' use of the learning progressions and how they adapt the learning progression to their local curriculum, instruction, and assessment materials to support student learning. The case study will also explore whether and how teacher adaptation affects student development. The learning progression will contribute to teaching and learning in science by guiding the development of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional learning in a coherent manner to provide all students opportunities to learn in science and support teachers to improve their local science learning systems. Findings from the project will expand the current knowledge and research on learning progression with multiple intermediate learning pathways for three-dimensional learning that provide all students the opportunity to learn in science. 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.