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Teaching, Teachers, and the Education Workforce

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Leadership for Integrated Middle-School Science (LIMSS)

Year: 2008
Name of Institution:
University of South Florida
Goal: Development and Innovation
Principal Investigator:
Potter, Robert
Award Amount: $1,444,403
Award Period: 3 Years
Award Number: R305A080078

Description:

Co-Principal Investigators: Dana Zeidler, University of South Florida, and Andi Ringer, Hillsborough County Public Schools

Purpose: Eighty percent of America's workforce needs the skills and much of the knowledge taught in science, and we need science specialists from technicians to researchers. Yet, student interest in science declines during school, as do attitudes about science, both of which affect student participation in the subject. Intervention in middle schools (grades 6–8) is an optimum point of intervention because students' attitudes are not firmly set; and, science is taught primarily by teachers who do not also teach other subjects, and can therefore focus on science. Moreover, many science teachers have misconceptions and deficiencies in their content knowledge. The purpose of Leadership for Integrated Middle School Science (LIMSS) is to develop a replicable national model for developing teacher leaders, to create model instructional and professional development materials, and to provide a system for improving the teaching of middle school integrated/comprehensive science.

Project: Leadership for Integrated Middle School Science(LIMSS) will develop a practical and replicable model professional development program with support materials. LIMSS develops teacher leadership in middle schools and teachers' ability to deliver student-centered, engaging science instruction. It emphasizes the nature of science, science processes, and level-appropriate approaches to teaching integrated science. Materials include pre-developed modules that were designed for future elementary and middle school teachers. District-adopted instructional materials will be used in all workshops to root professional development in the science that teachers teach. These materials will be analyzed using program rubrics to assess their effectiveness. Teacher-driven modifications to improve instruction will be noted and incorporated for implementation. Multiple and systematic feedback from staff, faculty and teacher leaders (TLs) will be used along with teacher observations, web-based discussion boards and journals to iteratively refine the LIMSS program materials over the 3-year process.

Products:  The expected outcomes of this research include a replicable model for developing teacher leaders to improve the teaching of integrated middle school science, published reports on the development, feasibility, and usability of the professional development model, and accompanying instructional materials.

Structured Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop a 2-year professional development program designed to produce in each participating middle school a core of three teacher leaders (TLs) that have the strong pedagogical content knowledge necessary to teach integrated science, and the leadership skills to replicate their own preparation for all other science teachers in their schools. An integrated science approach introduces students gradually to all areas of science with emphasis on major common concepts such as energy.

Setting: The setting for this project is middle school science classes in a large school district in south Florida.

Population: Participants in this project include middle school science teachers. Ten middle schools (out of 44) will be selected where the science supervisor can identify a science subject area leader and two additional teachers that have excellent evaluations and a potential for collaborative leadership strengths. The average number of middle school science teachers per school is 10.5, so that TLs constitute about 30% of science teachers in a school. There will be approximately 75 other science teachers in the chosen schools. In the third year of the project, TLs will work with these other teachers. The 1:3 ratio of TLs to their colleague teachers is near the optimum for personal interaction and reinforcement.

Intervention: To begin the professional development, three middle school teachers from each of 10 schools will be provided with training designed to develop leadership skills and to learn how to implement effective science instruction. Teams of university science and science education faculty, and master teachers from the school district collaborate to organize materials and orchestrate professional development activities prior to the first summer. Then, the teams will work with the 30 TLs (one from each grade 6, 7 and 8 in each school) to create a learning community that examines the effects of the interventions. The program includes 2-week summer institutes, job-embedded school-year activities and web-supported professional development. In the final summer and school year, these TLs become in-school instructional leaders/coaches for their 75 science teacher colleagues. Major themes of the professional development will include developing teacher leadership skills, enhancing teacher understanding of how students learn, and helping teachers understand how science processes can be incorporated across all content areas of science instruction.

Research Design and Methods: The project will employ a model of on-going refinement to be utilized in reformulating the professional development program's components through an iterative process. After each session of professional development, participants will be surveyed for their opinions on the usefulness of materials. This data will be triangulated with information based on the professional judgments of the workshop delivery team members. Each member of the team will provide an independent assessment of what went well and what needs to be improved. The sum of this information (from program staff and participants, on-going teacher observations and teacher journal reflections) will be provided to the leadership team as it becomes available, and they will decide on what changes are needed. The desired changes in response to the accumulated information will be assigned to appropriate project faculty/staff for implementation, and all changes to the program materials are then subsequently reviewed and approved by the leadership team. The study will include two full-year implementations with teacher leaders (TLs), and approximately a half-year implementation of TLs working with other science teachers in their respective schools.

Key Measures:  Key measures include teacher surveys and semi-structured interviews; teacher content assessments; teacher questionnaires on attitudes, perceptions, and practices; classroom observations; and student test scores.

Data Analytic Strategy:  Mixed methods analyses of the above data will be conducted. Student test scores each semester will be used to calculate an average teacher score; and Z score comparisons will be made across different courses.

** This project was submitted to and funded under Teacher Quality: Mathematics and Science Education in FY 2008.