Designing Curriculum Materials to Embody the Vision of the Framework for K–12 Science Education

• In Event: 47.088 - Overcoming Challenges in Developing and Implementing Next Generation Science Standards–Aligned Instructional Materials and Assessments

Abstract

We explore challenges in developing curriculum materials that meet the vision of the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013). These challenges include 1) how to select phenomena and design-problems that students from various backgrounds, particularly students from underrepresented groups, see as motivating, accessible, and drive their learning across time; 2) how to organize students’ experiences so that the ideas build in sophistication and complexity to allow students to develop useable knowledge (Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012; authors 2018); and 3) how to ensure learning goals align with the NGSS and support understanding of unfamiliar phenomena (Authors, 2014). Because Framework aligned materials differ substantially from traditional materials, “How do we design materials to ensure that teachers in different environments and from diverse teaching backgrounds find them useable?”

The project is grounded in situated learning theories—in particular, situated cognition in a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Situated theories present knowledge as constructed through activity and in relation to others—thus, learning is “situated” in the activity, context, and community in which it occurs (Greeno, 1998). This perspective forms the foundation of the Framework. The Framework focuses on a small number of disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) and crosscutting concepts (CCCs) by engaging learners to use practices to make sense of phenomena and find solutions to problems. For students to gain proficiency in the standards, they need to use scientific practices with a variety of DCIs and CCCs. In this way students build useable, integrated knowledge of the DCIs and CCCs and proficiency in using the practices (NRC, 2012). Through increasingly independent opportunities to engage in sense-making about phenomena, students’ progress along a trajectory from supported to more independent participation in communities of practice.

Design-based research (Brown, 1992), bridging theory and practice, makes use of situated learning in designed contexts, and supports development of design principles (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012). With iterative design, we use observation tools, evolving rubrics, reflection and redesign in research- practitioner partnerships (Barab and Squire, 2004) to evaluate the relationships between theories of learning, the three dimensions, and the embodied use of materials. We draw on our experiences from designing materials at the upper elementary level and at higher levels in middle school, that aligned to the Framework and build toward the NGSS’s PEs to discuss the challenges and present possible solutions that arise when teachers and curriculum designers develop materials. We draw on examples from our design process and from classroom enactments to support claims.

Consistent with the conference call “to lessen inequality and increase educational opportunities,” the Framework presents a vision to drive learners from diverse backgrounds to develop knowledge-in-use that will prepare them to live in a knowledge-rich world where they need to draw on what they know to solve problems, make decisions and create a sustainable world. However, this vision will not be met without high-quality curriculum materials that align to vision of the Framework.

Authors

• Joseph S. Krajcik, Michigan State University

• Emily Adah Miller, University of Georgia