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1. Exploring teachers’ learning to support rigorous science learning through collaborative design

   https://doi.org/10.3102/IP.22.1884509  

   Coker, R.; Akcil-Okan, O.; Rhemer, D. M.; Morandi, S.; Schellinger, J.; Tekkumru-Kisa, M.; Southerland, S.A. (April 2022, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   Reform efforts targeting science instruction emphasize that students should develop scientific proficiency that empowers them to collaboratively negotiate science ideas as they develop meaningful understandings about science phenomena through science practices. The lessons teachers design and enact play a critical role in engaging students in rigorous science learning. Collaborative design, in which teachers work together to design, enact, and reflect on their teaching, holds potential to support teachers’ learning, but scarce research examines the pathways by which collaborative design can influence teachers’ instructional practices. Examining the teaching and reflective thinking of two science teachers who engaged in collaborative design activities over two years, we found that their enactment practices became more supportive of students’ rigorous learning over time, and that they identified collaborative efforts with teacher educators and partner teachers to plan lessons and analyze videos of instruction as supportive of their learning to enact rigorous instruction. 

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2. Integrating computational thinking into middle school science through co-designed storylines

   Biddy, Q.; Gendreau Chakarov, A.; Jacobs, J.; Recker, M.; Sumner, T.; Penuel, W. (January 2020, Association for Science Teacher Education)

   We describe a professional development model that supports teachers to integrate computational thinking (CT) and computer science principles into middle school science and STEM classes. The model includes the collaborative design (co-design) (Voogt et al., 2015) of storylines or curricular units aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) that utilize programmable sensors such as those contained on the micro:bit. Teachers spend several workshops co-designing CT-integrated storylines and preparing to implement them with their own students. As part of this process, teachers develop or modify curricular materials to ensure a focus on coherent, student driven instruction through the investigation of scientific phenomena that are relevant to the students and utilize sensor technology. Teachers implement the storylines and meet to collaboratively reflect on their instructional practices as well as their students’ learning. Throughout this cyclical, multi-year process, teachers develop expertise in CT-integrated science instruction as they plan for and use instructional practices that align with three dimension science teaching and foreground computational thinking. Throughout the professional learning process, teachers alternate between wearing their “student hats” and their “teacher hats”, in order to maintain both a student and teacher perspective as they co-design and reflect on their implementation of CT-integrated units. This paper illustrates two teachers’ experiences of the professional development process over a two-year period, including their learning, planning, implementation, and reflection on two co-designed units. 

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3. Bridging Culture and Code: Culturally Responsive Computing Through Teacher-Led Curriculum Design

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3702653  

   Yan, W; Amresh, A; Parekh, P; Prescott, P (August 2025, ACM)

   Porter, Leo; Brown, Neil; Morrison, Briana; Montero, Calkin (Ed.)

   Indigenous communities remain significantly underrepresented in computer science (CS) and STEM fields, facing persistent barriers such as limited access to resources, infrastructure, and culturally relevant instruction. This study investigated how educators serving Indigenous populations designed and implemented culturally responsive computing (CRC)[2] curricula within a long-term professional development program grounded in a design-based research framework. The study examined how sustained, collaborative support enabled educators to effectively integrate Indigenous cultural knowledge, values, and practices into computer science education. Seven secondary teachers who work in schools in Arizona and New Mexico with over 90% Native American enrollment participated in a two-year professional development program called Let’s Talk Code Teaching Fellow. The program consisted of twelve online modules,weekly virtual meetings, in-personworkshops, and conference participation[3]. Following the DBR framework [1], teachers engaged in iterative cycles of lesson design, implementation, and revision, creating and teaching three culturally relevant computer science lessons. They received feedback from fellow teachers and research teams, allowing them to improve the connection between computing and cultural relevance in their lessons. The study employed a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. Qualitative data included 14 finalized lesson plans, teacher reflections, teacher interviews, and classroom observation notes, which were thematically analyzed to identify common instructional practices and challenges, as well as strategies that connect culture and computing. Our findings showed that teachers sustained local culture by integrating Indigenous languages and art and innovative computing tools such as Scratch, micro: bit, and Sphero robots into their computing lessons. Teachers reported an increase in their confidence in computer science instruction following the long-term PD and benefited from a strong professional learning community. 

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4. Enacting rigorous lessons: Leveraging students’ ideas for enhancing demand on student thinking

   Akcil-Okan, O. & (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Recent instructional reforms in science education emphasize rigorous instruction where students’ engage in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they try to explain phenomena or solve problems. This study aims to investigate how students’ intellectual engagement can be promoted through design and implementation of cognitively demanding science tasks. Specifically, we aim to unpack instructional practices that can help to enhance students’ engagement in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they work in science classrooms. In our analysis, we focused on the implementation of five lessons across three different science classrooms that two middle school science teachers collaboratively designed as a part of a professional development about promoting productive student talk in science classrooms. Our analysis revealed the changes in students’ intellectual engagement across the trajectory of these lessons and three instructional practices associated with enhancing opportunities for students’ thinking: (a) Holding students intellectually accountable to develop explanations of how and why a phenomenon occurs through collaborative work, (b) Leveraging students’ ideas to advance their thinking, (c) Initiating just-in-time resources and questions to problematize students’ intellectual engagement. The study findings provide implications for how to generate opportunities to enhance students’ thinking in the service of sensemaking. 

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5. Enacting rigorous lessons: Leveraging students’ ideas for enhancing demand on student thinking

   Akcil-Okan, O. & (January 2021, 2020 Marvalene Hughes Research in Education Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Recent instructional reforms in science education emphasize rigorous instruction where students’ engage in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they try to explain phenomena or solve problems. This study aims to investigate how students’ intellectual engagement can be promoted through design and implementation of cognitively demanding science tasks. Specifically, we aim to unpack instructional practices that can help to enhance students’ engagement in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they work in science classrooms. In our analysis, we focused on the implementation of five lessons across three different science classrooms that two middle school science teachers collaboratively designed as a part of a professional development about promoting productive student talk in science classrooms. Our analysis revealed the changes in students’ intellectual engagement across the trajectory of these lessons and three instructional practices associated with enhancing opportunities for students’ thinking: (a) Holding students intellectually accountable to develop explanations of how and why a phenomenon occurs through collaborative work, (b) Leveraging students’ ideas to advance their thinking, (c) Initiating just-in-time resources and questions to problematize students’ intellectual engagement. The study findings provide implications for how to generate opportunities to enhance students’ thinking in the service of sensemaking. 

   more » « less