An Assets-Based Professional Development Approach to Support Middle School Teachers' Implementation of Next Generation Science Standards

• In Event: Designing for Teacher Learning and Enduring Reform Within Science Education

Abstract

The professional development program described in this poster starts from the premise that teachers, like students, have knowledge and previous experiences that can be leveraged for their learning. A constructivist perspective of teacher professional learning should reflect this understanding (Putnam & Borko, 2000) and make use of teachers’ previous experiences as a resource for their growth. This assets-based approach to professional development is based on the argument that teacher learning can be structured and implemented in ways that help teachers recognize that transitioning to an NGSS-oriented classroom is not necessarily about radically changing the way they teach, but about making strategic adjustments to their familiar practices and routines in order to help students recognize and reflect upon the scientific practices in which they are engaging.
One of the most significant ways NGSS differs from prior standards is the specification that each performance expectation must combine a relevant science and engineering practice with a disciplinary core idea and crosscutting concept, referred to as the three dimensions of learning (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Although many teachers are familiar with engaging students in manipulative-based experiences, classically known as the “hands-on activity”, having their students participate in a directed version of many of these activities is likely not sufficient to support full understanding of the three dimensions of NGSS. The emphasis on science practices demands that teachers move away from dispensing knowledge or orchestrating step-by-step hands-on activities to investigations that involve student questioning, experimental design, data collection, and most importantly, reflection and synthesis. Since the practices elucidate the process of science and engineering, classroom activities where students are fully engaged in STEM investigations are ideal platforms for reflecting upon the practices (Bell, Bricker, Tzou, Lee, & Van Horne, 2012). Some hands-on activities are better classified as student-centered enactments of science or engineering and can serve as the foundation for designing deeper investigations that emphasize the NGSS practices and their connections to the disciplinary content and crosscutting concepts.
The poster will characterize the design and implementation principles of a 40-hour professional development program that enables teachers to expand their use of existing student-centered, hands-on activities into deeper, practice-rich investigations. In particular, I will focus on the development and implementation of a planning tool that teachers use to take an activity or lesson that they currently use in their curriculum and modify that activity to address the three dimensions of science learning defined by NGSS. The professional development takes teachers step-wise through the planning tool to identify (1) the phenomena that the activity helps students to understand (Reiser, 2013), (2) the sources of uncertainty in the activity that will necessitate students’ use of science practices (Manz, 2014), and (3) how they will support students in making connections between multiple activities to the crosscutting concept that is foregrounded. The poster will also include some initial data and coding schemes used to understand teachers’ sensemaking about NGSS and their current teaching practices.

Author

• Sara C. Heredia, Exploratorium Teacher Institute