Navigating Design Tensions Through Tools for Collaboration: Co-Design of Next Generation Science Standards–Aligned Science Curriculum Within a Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: 68.017 - Equity-Focused Implementation of Next Generation Science Standards: Exploring Models of Hope and Possibility

Abstract

Objectives
Collaborative curriculum design fosters teacher agency (Severance et al., 2016), deepens teachers’ reflexive practices (Voogt et al., 2011), enables scientists and engineers to develop their pedagogical practices, and can offer opportunities for youth to engage in personally-relevant science learning (e.g., Zimmerman & Bell, 2012). Policies that focus on implementing the NGSS (NRC, 2015) advocate for school leaders to build networks with local partners in order to undertake this work of distributed expertise (e.g. Severance et al., 2014). Our research focuses on the expansive learning (Engeström & Sannino, 2010) that results when science teachers, STEM disciplinary experts, and learning scientists co-design NGSS-aligned curriculum units that integrate computational inquiry (e.g. Barth, 2006) through a research-practice partnership (RPP). We ask: How can curricular co-design experiences be structured as Professional Learning Communities to: 1) foster participants’ mutual learning, and 2) design curriculum that is deeply aligned to the NGSS and grounded in a perspective of equity?

Theoretical Framework
Many reform-oriented STEM projects position teachers as authors of innovative curriculum materials (e.g., DeFour, 2016). Within RPPs, multi-tiered teams engage in this co-design work through joint work at research/practice boundaries (Penuel et al., 2015), using scaffolds and tools as boundary objects to support collaborative boundary crossing (Akkerman & Bakker, 2001). We seek to understand how to structure co-design initiatives and models for professional learning by investigating the emergent affordances, challenges, and design tensions of this work.
Modes of Inquiry
This design-based research study (The DBR Collective, 2003) employed qualitative methods (Merriam, 1998) to study the STEM+C project, an NSF-funded initiative that partners interdisciplinary collaborators to co-design curricula that aims to broaden participation in science learning with the support of computational inquiry and tools.

Data Sources
This research was a case study of our team’s co-design practices during the 2015-2017 school years. We used open coding strategies to make sense of audio/video, field notes, interviews, correspondences, and designed artifacts (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Findings
Preliminary findings highlight design features of the STEM+C PLC that supported expansive learning among participants:
Tools for Dialogue: As collegial relationships developed during the co-design process; individuals recognized and leveraged others’ particular expertise.
Tools for Joint Work: Participants engaged in digital workspaces to author the curriculum through a scaffolded process, leading to productive co-construction of ideas. As such, the virtual curriculum template acted to mediate boundary-crossing activities (i.e., Star & Griesemer, 1989).
Tools for Equitable Science Learning: A design tension emerged on making curricular content personally meaningful to students. The design team negotiated to reach mutual understanding about what these tenets mean for youth.
Scholarly Significance
This study offers a model of teacher professional learning in collaboration with STEM disciplinary experts and learning scientists. This work speaks to the power of the co-design process for providing personally-meaningful science learning opportunities for youth from backgrounds historically underrepresented in the sciences.

Authors

• Kristen Bergsman, University of Washington - Seattle

• Elaine Renee Klein, University of Washington - Seattle

• Veronica Cassone McGowan, University of Washington - Seattle

• Deb Morrison, University of Washington - Seattle

• Philip L. Bell, University of Washington