Understanding Teachers’ Learning and Implementation Challenges in Teaching to Learn About Complex Systems

• In Event: Developing Evidence of Understanding Complex Systems

Abstract

BioGraph: Graphical Programming for Constructing Complex Systems Understanding in Biology is a professional development project for teachers in Boston high schools to implement biology units aimed at developing understanding of complex systems. Project activities are anchored around StarLogo TNG, an agent-based modeling tool. Teachers implement 6 units over the course of the school year which incorporate the technology and curricula underpinned by the curriculum and instruction framework.

In addition to impacts on students’ learning, we have been interested in understanding how teachers themselves are learning since it’s well established that science teacher knowledge strongly influences what and how they teach (Abell, 2007). Coupled with the variability of teachers, classrooms, and schools (Penuel et al., 2011) when studying the impact of such reform efforts, it was prudent for the initial stages of our work to examine teachers’ learning and implementation challenges to identify conditions for project success. Here, we provide insights into what activities teachers found most challenging and why.
This research builds from literature that acknowledges teachers as learners when moving from novices to experts in new educational domains (Thompson et al., 2013; Vermunt & Endedijk, 2011). In the realm of technology integration, researchers have documented challenges in intrinsic teacher-related factors such as skills and beliefs and extrinsic contextual factors such as technology support (Ertmer et al., 2012). We charted difficulty levels in terms of ease of implementation of project activities and investigate the factors that influenced those levels.

The teachers represented a range of demographics: 3 males and 7 females; and teaching experience ranging from 3–18 years. Their schools ranged in ethnicity and socio-economics. Collectively, the project schools’ demographics mirrored the average of the state (low-income 37%).

Four data sources were analyzed for this study (the first two summarized here): i) survey question ranking ease of implementation of project activities; ii) a 45-minute end-of-implementation interview that included probes for understanding ranking outcomes; iii) classroom observations; and iv) researcher/facilitator focus group interviews.
Table 1 shows the average ease of implementation rankings teachers provided for the eight project activities and tools.

BioGraph Project Activity Average Ranking
Alignment with Biology Curriculum 2.3 (easiest)
Use of Teacher Guides 2.4
Use of Student Packets 2.7
Teaching Biology Content Through StarLogo Models 3.6
Using StarLogo Models 5.7
Argumentation and Collaboration 5.8
Programming StarLogo Models 6.6
Teaching Complex Systems 6.8 (hardest)

We provide further interpretations of the rankings in the presentation. However, here we briefly focus on the ranking of Teaching Complex Systems as being the most challenging despite allocating the greatest amount of time to this in the PD. Teacher interviews revealed reasons for why teaching complex systems to their students was difficult. One interesting theme instantiated the idea that teachers felt that their own knowledge of complex systems increased as a result of project activities, however, they were unable to translate this knowledge in pedagogical practice. In the presentation we will discuss these challenges and relate these to the broader goals of methodological and practical challenges in teaching and learning about complex systems.

Authors

• Susan A. Yoon, University of Pennsylvania

• Jessica Koehler, University of Pennsylvania

• Emma Anderson, University of Pennsylvania

• Eric D. Klopfer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Ilana Schoenfeld

• Hal Scheintaub, Massachusetts Institute of Technology