Establishing Empirical Links Between Science Professional Learning, Classroom Practices, and Student Learning

• In Event: Supporting and Studying Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards on a Large Scale

Abstract

Objectives: Previous analyses from a study of teacher professional learning (PL) demonstrated statistically significant, lasting gains in both teacher knowledge and student learning as the result of 4th grade teachers’ participation in a science PL program about electric circuits [1] [2]. This paper investigates why and how the PL worked to produce these positive results by studying students’ opportunity to learn in the classroom.

Perspective(s): The logic model underlying this intervention posits that PL improves teacher knowledge, which changes classroom practice, which improves student achievement. This study provides empirical support for this theory by establishing whether and how PL changed classroom practice and how those practices related to student learning. This paper includes a study teacher as co-researcher and co-author who provides reflections about the PL and study’s findings.

Data and Methods: The full randomized controlled trial included approximately 280 elementary teachers and 7,000 students [1]. Data for this substudy of classroom teaching came from video recordings of two consecutive electric circuits lessons from 30 randomly selected focal teachers.

Three researchers rated classroom videos using a project-generated rubric with five dimensions that reflect features of high-quality science instruction and the methods and goals of the PL course (1) student cognitive engagement; (2) focus on core science ideas; (3) use of representations; (4) engagement in scientific sense-making practices; and (5) teacher elicitation and attention to student thinking.

Permutation tests compared ratings for treatment and control classrooms for each dimension and for “overall classroom quality,” which is a weighted average of all dimensions identified by a principal component analysis. For each test, we controlled for geographic location and incoming teacher knowledge (from content pretests).

Results: Large, statistically significant differences were found between treatment and control classrooms for overall classroom quality (ES = 2.39, p =.004).

Classroom ratings were moderately correlated with student gains, beyond what could be explained by teachers’ pre-PL content knowledge (r(26) = .37, p = .06). We also found a moderate, but significant correlation between overall classroom quality and teachers’ posttest (r(26) = .39, p = .03) and gain scores (r(26) = .47, p =.01).

These results are consistent with the hypothesis that stronger teacher content knowledge is correlated with teaching practices that foster a classroom environment that improve student science learning. They also confirm that our classroom rubric measures classroom practices associated with gains in student content knowledge. Reflections from a participant-researcher provide additional evidence in support of the underlying logic model and offer insight into the process of translating and transforming PL experiences into classroom practices.

Significance: This study provides evidence of relationships between PL, teacher knowledge, changes in classroom practices, and changes in student content knowledge. It also provides a tool for measuring differences in observed science teaching and demonstrates how teacher-participant input enriches interpretation of research findings.

Authors

• Nicole Wong, Heller Research Associates

• Selena Burns, Heller Research Associates

• Lo-Hua Yuan

• Soo Hyun Han-Harris, Oakland Unified School District