Using Learning Progression Frameworks and Assessments to Guide Research and Professional Development

• In Event: K-12 Student Success: Complexity in Mathematics and Science Education Research

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework

This presentation focuses on the goal of environmental science literacy—the capacity to participate in and make decisions through evidence-based discussions of socio-ecological systems. Environmental science literacy requires citizens to:
● Understand and evaluate experts’ arguments about environmental issues.
● Choose policies and actions that are consistent with their environmental values.

Learning progressions are “… descriptions of the successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about a topic that can follow one another as students learn about and investigate a topic over a broad span of time” (NRC, 2007). Conceptual and methodological foundations for learning progressions are described by Smith, Wiser, Anderson, & Krajcik (2006) and by Mohan, Chen, & Anderson (2009), among others.

Modes of Inquiry

We have developed learning progression frameworks and assessments in three interconnected content domains:
● Carbon. Carbon-transforming processes in socio-ecological systems at multiple scales, including cellular and organismal metabolism, ecological carbon cycling, carbon sequestration, and combustion of fossil fuels. The primary cause of global climate change is the current worldwide imbalance among these processes.
● Water. The role of water and substances carried by water in earth, living, and engineered systems, including the atmosphere, surface water and ice, ground water, human water systems, and water in living systems.
● Biodiversity. The diversity of living systems, including variability among individuals in population, evolutionary changes in populations, diversity in natural ecosystems and in systems managed by humans that produce food, fiber, and wood.

The learning progression frameworks and assessments were developed and validated using written assessments and clinical interviews. Overall, we administered about 6500 tests and 250 interviews to students and teachers across four geographically and culturally disparate locations (Baltimore, Santa Barbara, rural Michigan, and rural Colorado) during two academic years.

Results and Products
In all three strands student accounts can be classified into four levels of achievement, describing how students (a) gain knowledge, (b) engage in more sophisticated forms of practice, and (c) master scientific discourse. Of these three dimensions of learning, the discourse dimension may be the most fundamental; the levels of achievement resemble stages in learning a second language that is powerful for analyzing environmental issues.
The learning progression frameworks and assessments are key products of the research. In addition, we used these products to develop teaching materials at the middle school and high school level that are responsive to students’ ways of understanding science, and as the basis for coordinated professional development across our four sites that supports teachers in using student thinking to inform instruction.

Significance
There are many challenges organizing a large, geographically dispersed project around a new approach to educational research and assessment. Learning progressions map how students develop understanding, enable measures of progress over long periods of time, and inform coherent approaches to teaching and professional development. This project demonstrates how this approach can be implemented consistently across four geographic regions and in three different content domains. The tools developed by this project both advance educational scholarship and support the development of environmental science literacy.

Author

• Jennifer H. Doherty, Michigan State University