Project Activities
The research team is developing three professional development courses to address physical science and earth science topics and instructional approaches for middle school teachers. In addition, they are conducting a series of small, randomized controlled studies to assess the potential efficacy of each of these courses separately to improve teacher content knowledge and student learning, and the reduction of the science achievement gap between English learners and English-proficient speakers. A fourth study will assess the potential efficacy of the entire sequence of courses on teacher knowledge and student science achievement.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The schools are located in California.
Sample
Participants include 60 middle school science teachers and 1,200 students. The schools serve a high percentage of minority students and English learners.
Intervention
Understanding Science is a series of professional development courses for middle school teachers (grades 6-8). In this project, the research team is developing three new courses in this series to address challenging physical science and earth science topics for middle school teachers: understanding heat and mechanical energy, uUnderstanding plate tectonics, and understanding climate and weather. The courses are designed to help teachers learn major concepts of science, examine how children make sense of those concepts, and analyze and improve their teaching. Each course includes 24 hours of professional development divided into eight three-hour sessions. The first two courses have a pedagogical focus on supporting students' writing in science, and the third one has a pedagogical focus on supporting students' reading in science.
Research design and methods
An iterative process will be employed for developing, pilot testing, and revising products, including internal review, pilot testing with local teachers, and pilot testing of facilitator materials, and an external review from multiple perspectives (scientists, teachers, science educators, and other experts). Pilot data will include teacher feedback on surveys at the end of each session and each course, teacher and facilitator focus group discussions, facilitator and observers' notes, and audiotapes of course sessions. After completing the development of the three new courses, the research team will conduct three small randomized controlled studies to assess the potential efficacy of each of the three Understanding Science courses developed here on improving both teacher and student science knowledge. In each study, 10 teachers are randomly assigned to the intervention group and 10 teachers are randomly assigned to a delayed treatment control condition, for a total sample of approximately 20 middle school teachers and their 400 students per individual study. A fourth study will preliminarily test the efficacy of the entire sequence of courses. In this study, 10 teachers each will be randomly assigned to the three-course sequence, to only one of the three Understanding Science courses, or to a delayed treatment control group. Each of these conditions will also preliminarily test 200 students (20 per teacher).
Control condition
Teachers in the delayed treatment control groups participate in whatever professional development training their districts typically provide, and will have the opportunity to participate in one of the treatments the following year.
Key measures
Outcomes in this study are being assessed with multiple measures, including previously developed and validated tests on science knowledge for students and teachers (Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-Based Assessment Resources for Teachers (MOSART) and Assessing Teacher Learning About Science Teaching (ATLAST)), the Grade 8 California Standards Test in science, content tests for both teachers and students, and classroom observations during science instructional units.
Data analytic strategy
The research team is using hierarchical linear modeling for analyzing student outcomes, analysis of covariance for teachers' outcomes, and nonparametric statistics as well as descriptive methods for analysis of qualitative classroom data.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: Products from this project include three new Understanding Science professional development courses for middle school science teachers, as well as published reports on the potential efficacy of these courses for improving teacher knowledge and student science achievement.
Book
Daehler, K.R., Folsom, J., and Shinohara, M. (2011). Making Sense of SCIENCE: Energy for Teachers of Grades 6-8. San Francisco: WestEd.
Daehler, K.R., Shinohara, M., and Folsom, J. (2011). Making Sense of SCIENCE: Force and Motion for Teachers of Grades 6-8. San Francisco: WestEd.
Book chapter
Shinohara, M., and Daehler, K.R. (2008). Understanding Science: The Role of Community in Content Learning. In A. Lieberman, and L. Miller (Eds.), Teachers in Professional Communities: Improving Teaching and Learning (pp. 85-96). New York: Teachers College Press.
** This project was submitted to and funded under Teacher Quality: Mathematics and Science Education in FY 2007.
Supplemental information
Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop three teacher professional development courses that cover physical science and earth science topics (see below). The courses are intended to build the science content knowledge of middle school teachers, improve teachers' instructional practice, and thereby improve the science achievement of middle school students, especially English-language learners.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
