Supporting Productive Customization Of HQIM Through Assessment Task Design

• In Event: Adaptation of Science Instructional Materials: Localizing Curriculum Materials to Support Equitable Sensemaking

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework

Preparing teachers to productively customize HQIM so that students engage with phenomena that connect to their interests and identities is an important, but challenging, goal for science education (NRC, 2012). In this paper, we present an approach to customization that relies on an “opening” (Remillard & Kaye, 2002) that exists in HQIM to design alternative phenomenon-driven assessment tasks that better connect to students’ interests and local contexts. This approach can produce more equitable learning outcomes for students (DeBarger et al., 2017), while maintaining unit integrity. In addition, this approach creates feasible opportunities for teachers to better understand the units’ design and how to develop assessments of student proficiency in ways that align with the Framework vision.

Methods

We recruited 18 teachers from a large urban Midwest district that adopted HQIM to support standards implementation. In grade-level teams (three middle and four high school), teachers participated in a six-day professional learning (PL) series to support them in using tools to customize a unit to better engage their students’ interests and science-linked identities (Authors, et al., 2024). Teachers engaged in 25 hours of PL plus time to collaborate and receive feedback. Teachers analyzed the unit’s alignment with the Framework vision and used information from students and 3D standards to identify alternative phenomena to anchor a revised assessment. After implementing their assessments in the fall, teachers will use student and survey data to reflect on their designs and share insights. Below, we share our thematic analysis of teachers’ assessments, exit tickets, and field notes to understand the rationales for teachers’ design decisions as well as the successes and challenges of adapting HQIM through task design.

Results

While teachers shared that developing an alternative task was challenging, they reported that the tools helped them brainstorm and vet candidate phenomena. All teams used information collected from their students to justify their phenomena choices. For example, one team leveraged their students’ learning how to drive to design a task to understand how Newton’s 2nd Law explains why weather conditions affect vehicle stopping distances. Other groups leveraged students’ everyday interests, such as cooking or sports.

Teachers also valued unpacking the 3D standards and how it helped them better understand the unit’s design and what opportunities students needed when making sense of the chosen phenomena. Their reflections also highlighted the productive tension of presenting a problematized scenario to students, in terms of providing enough context for the phenomenon while narrowing in on a puzzling aspect to figure out, driving the coherence and motivation for students to complete the assessment task. The availability of data and information to make visible what was puzzling about the phenomenon was an additional limiting factor.

Scholarly Significance

These initial findings suggest that designing an alternative, phenomenon-driven assessment is a complex, yet accessible, entry point for teachers to localize HQIM. Furthermore, engaging teachers in PL specifically designed to support this work can be essential to support teachers and to design productive assessment customizations.

Authors

• Abraham Lo, BSCS Science Learning

• Elaine Klein, BSCS Science Learning

• Melissa R. Campanella, University of Colorado - Boulder

• William R. Penuel, University of Colorado - Boulder