From Cognitive Models of Reasoning to Lesson Plans for Inquiry

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.