A Team-Based Model for Co-Adapting Existing Middle-School Science Curricula for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

今天的学校正在经历越来越多的文化和语言多样性，并面临着在学校科学和学生校外生活经验之间建立有意义的联系的挑战。中学是提供基础知识和鼓励对STEM职业感兴趣的关键时期。为了在这一关键时期最好地影响学习者，科学教师需要改进模型，以支持相关课程材料的开发和交付，以更好地为课堂上的所有学生服务。由研究人员，教师，学校和地区科学专家组成的高度支持的设计团队将共同适应现有的地区产生的科学单位，以整合社会和文化相关的科学实践，并利用学生的多元文化和语言实践作为优势。这一系列研究将评估学生的影响，以及科学课程共同设计的经验是否以及如何影响学校内的教学和富有成效的合作。该项目将为教师-研究人员合作设计模型的发展提供基础知识。本研究将集中在中学年级，并在德克萨斯州一个高度多样化的城市学区进行，其中44%的学生人口是新兴的双语者。在这个为期四年的项目中，共同设计团队将遵循基于设计的研究（DBR）模型，迭代开发，实施，完善和测试一个模型，旨在适应现有的基于标准的6-8年级科学区课程单元。该项目将支持两组6-8年级教师使用级联方法共同适应多个科学单元。在第一年，12个队列1教师（每个年级四个）将共同设计，实施和完善每个年级的单元。在第二年，第一年的单元将被用作模型，以帮助第二批12名教师（每个年级4名）共同设计第二套单元。在第三年，两个队列将修改以前设计的单位，并适应额外的单位。在第四年，第一批教师将继续战略性减少脚手架，第二批教师将继续另一个共同设计周期。将收集多种定量和定性数据来源，为共同设计周期的迭代发展提供信息，并探索如何在课程设计和实施中利用学生的文化和语言实践，以及评估教师在课程调整过程中遇到的机会和限制。教师的成果（关于多样性，课程开发能力和教学实践的教学科学的信念）和学生的成果（科学学习和科学语言的使用）也将进行评估。由此产生的基于理论和实地测试的协同设计模型沿着修订和测试的单元/课程计划，工具和策略将与学区和研究人员分享有兴趣适应这些资源，以适应他们的情况。该项目由NSF的发现研究PreK-12（DRK-12）计划资助。DRK-12项目旨在通过研究和开发STEM教育创新和方法，显著提高学前班学生和教师在科学、技术、工程、数学和计算机科学（STEM）方面的学习和教学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Today’s schools are experiencing increasing cultural and linguistic diversity and facing the challenge of creating meaningful connections between school science and student lived experiences outside of school. Middle school is a critical time to provide fundamental knowledge and encourage interest in STEM careers. In order to best impact learners during this critical period, science teachers need improved models to support the development and delivery of relevant curriculum materials to better serve all students in their classrooms. Highly supported design teams consisting of researchers, teachers, and both school and district science specialists will co-adapt existing district-generated science units to integrate socially and culturally relevant science practices and draw on students' diverse cultural and language practices as strengths. This series of studies will evaluate student impact as well as if and how science curricular co-design experiences impact teaching and productive collaboration within the schools. This project will provide foundational knowledge for the development of a teacher-researcher co-design model.This study will focus on middle school grades and take place in a highly diverse urban school district in Texas in which 44% of the student population are emergent bilinguals. In this four-year project, the co-design teams will follow design-based research (DBR) models to iteratively develop, implement, refine, and test a model that aims to adapt existing standards-based, grades 6-8 science district curricular units. The project will support two cohorts of grades 6-8 teachers to co-adapt multiple science units using a cascade approach. In year 1, 12 cohort 1 teachers (four in each grade) will co-design, implement, and refine a unit per grade level. In year 2, the units from year 1 will be used as a model to help cohort 2 of 12 additional teachers (four in each grade) to co-design a second set of units. In year 3, both cohorts will revise the previously designed units and adapt additional units. In year 4, cohort 1 teachers will be followed up with the strategic decreasing of scaffolding, and cohort 2 teachers will continue another co-design cycle. Multiple quantitative and qualitative data sources will be collected to inform the iterative development of co-design cycles and explore ways to leverage students’ cultural and language practices in lesson design and implementation, as well as to assess opportunities and constraints teachers encounter during curriculum adaptation. Teacher outcomes (beliefs about teaching science for diversity, curriculum development capacity, and instructional practices) and student outcomes (science learning and use of science language) will also be assessed. The resulting theory-based and field-tested co-design model along with the revised and tested unit/lesson plans, tools and strategies will be shared with school districts and researchers interested in adapting these resources to their contexts. This project is funded by NSF’s Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program. The DRK-12 program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.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.