Description:

Purpose: In this project, researchers intended to develop, implement, and assess cognitively grounded lesson planning methods to improve science achievement of middle-school students. The researchers carried out a three-phase design experiment. At the end of the project, the researchers hoped to measure changes in participating teachers' instructional practices and their students' academic achievement in science.

Structured Abstract

THE FOLLOWING CONTENT DESCRIBES THE PROJECT AT THE TIME OF FUNDING

Research Design and Methods: The researchers are carrying out a three-phase design experiment in grade 5 through 8 classrooms in 4 urban schools serving a predominantly African-American population of students, most of whom come from low income families. In the first phase, the researchers are studying how science education is currently being delivered by examining existing state science standards, science curricula, teaching practices, and high-stakes tests and seeing how they relate to one another. The researchers are using content and task analyses of educational materials, ethnographic field observations of science classes, and videotaped lesson analyses. In the second phase, they are carrying out a researcher-teacher design study, in which they develop lesson-planning methods and use those methods to guide their teaching of science in regular classrooms, evaluating the potential efficacy and feasibility of the approach. In the third phase, they are using a professional development process to help regular teachers learn to apply the new lesson planning methods, with the goal of implementing sustainable changes in the teachers' teaching practices and impacting students' science achievement. The researchers will measure changes in participating teachers' instructional practices and their students' academic achievement in science.

Related IES Projects: Training in Experimental Design: Developing Scalable and Adaptive Computer-based Science Instruction (R305H060034), Promoting Transfer of the Control of Variables Strategy in Elementary and Middle School Children via Contextual Framing and Abstraction (R305A100404), Contextualizing Experimental Design Instruction Within Related Inquiry Activities: The ISP Tutor (R305A170176)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations:  Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

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Book chapters

Li, J., and Klahr, D. (2006). The Psychology of Scientific Thinking: Implications for Science Teaching and Learning. In J. Rhoton, and P. Shane (Eds.), Teaching Science in the 21st Century (pp. 307–351). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

Journal articles

Klahr, D., and Li, J. (2005). Cognitive Research and Elementary Science Instruction: From the Laboratory, to the Classroom, and Back. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 14(2): 217–238.

Li, J., Klahr, D., and Siler, S. (2006). What Lies Beneath the Science Achievement Gap: The Challenges of Aligning Science Instruction With Standards and Tests. Science Educator, 15(1): 1–12.