An official website of the United States government
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) reflect an ambitious vision for science education where students investigate phenomena or solve problems through using and applying disciplinary core ideas in concert with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts. Because the NGSS are so different from prior standards, the need for high-quality curriculum materials is especially great. As new curricula go to scale, it will be important to conduct evidence-based research on their efficacy. We conducted a randomized experiment to examine the efficacy of a widely available NGSS-designed middle school curriculum for improving seventh grade students’ learning in physical science. A hierarchical linear modeling approach was applied to analyze student learning outcomes as measured by an NGSS-aligned assessment. Initial findings demonstrate evidence of promise of the curriculum materials for supporting three-dimensional teaching and learning. The findings provide support for further research on NGSS-designed materials at other grade levels and within other science domains.
more »
« less
The State of Framework-aligned Assessment Tasks: Where are we?
The emphasis on an equitable vision of science learning in current science education reform efforts sees students as contributing to knowledge-building through drawing on their rich cultural and linguistic backgrounds while engaging in the three dimensions to make sense of compelling, relevant phenomena. However, this vision will not be fully realized without coherence between curriculum, instruction, and assessment. As a majority of states have now adopted standards aligned to or adapted from the Framework, we see an urgent need for assessments that can support rather than conflict with equitable science learning. In this study, we seek to understand the current state of Framework-aligned assessment tasks. We have amassed 352 middle school tasks, originating from state-level assessment banks and assessment developers at universities or research organizations. Our preliminary findings from characterizing 104 tasks revealed that the majority of tasks target dimensions of the NGSS or Framework-based standards and include a phenomenon. However, there are challenges in framing phenomena that attend to students’ interests and identities and engage students in three-dimensional sensemaking. Additionally, some phenomena are not based in real-world observations and are not authentic from students’ perspectives, which makes it difficult for students to see connections of local or global relevance.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2201438
- PAR ID:
- 10540024
- Publisher / Repository:
- National Association for Research in Science Teaching International Conference
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract The National Research Council’s Framework for K-12 Science Education and the subsequent Next Generation Science Standards have provided a widespread common language for science education reform over the last decade. These efforts have naturally been targeted at the K-12 levels, but we have argued that the three dimensions outlined in these documents—scientific practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts (together termed three-dimensional learning)—are also a productive route for reform in college-level science courses. However, how and why college-level faculty might be motivated to incorporate three-dimensional learning into their courses is not well understood. Here, we report a mixed-methods study of participants in an interdisciplinary professional development program designed to support faculty in developing assessments and instruction aligned with three-dimensional learning. One cohort of faculty (N = 8) was interviewed, and four cohorts of faculty (N = 33) were surveyed. Using expectancy-value theory as an organizational framework, we identified themes of perceived values and costs that participants discussed in implementing three-dimensional learning. Based on a cluster analysis of all survey participants’ motivational profiles, we propose that these themes apply to the broader population of participants in this program. We recommend specific interventions to improve faculty motivation for implementing three-dimensional learning: emphasizing the utility value of three-dimensional learning in effecting positive learning gains for students; drawing connections between the dimensions of three-dimensional learning and faculty’s disciplinary identities; highlighting scientific practices as a key leverage point for faculty ability beliefs; minimizing cognitive dissonance for faculty in understanding the similarities and differences between the three dimensions; focusing on assessment writing as a keystone professional development activity; and aligning local evaluation practices and promotion policies with the 3DL framework.more » « less
-
Abstract The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provide a vision for contemporary science education with all students, including the fast‐growing population of multilingual learners in the United States K‐12 context. The shifts heralded by the NGSS have resulted in significant changes to English language proficiency (ELP) or English language development (ELD) standards so they better align with content standards and support all students, including multilingual learners, to engage in language‐rich disciplinary practices (e.g., arguing from evidence). The purpose of this article is to describe ELP/ELD standards aligned with content standards. Specifically, we describe how the policy initiatives of the NGSS as science standards and WIDA 2020 as ELP/ELD standards reflect each other in terms of conceptual foundations and architecture of the standards guiding classroom practices. By becoming more explicitly aware of how science standards and language standards present “mirror images” of each other, science educators will be better positioned to collaborate with their language education colleagues. As this article is intended to engage science educators who are generally familiar with the NGSS but likely new to ELP/ELD standards, we describe WIDA 2020 in detail and in ways accessible to a broad audience. In doing so, we aim to ensure the science education and language education communities are coordinated in their efforts to promote equitable science learning for all students, including multilingual learners. We close with implications for research, policy, and practice through collaboration between science education (as well as other content areas) and language education.more » « less
-
‘Algorithms’ is a core CS concept included in the K-12 CS standards, yet student challenges with understanding different aspects of algorithms are still not well documented, especially for younger students. This paper describes an approach to decompose the broad middle-school ‘algorithms’ standard into finer grained learning targets, develop formative assessment tasks aligned with the learning targets, and use the tasks to explore student understanding of, and challenges with, the various aspects of the standard. We present a number of student challenges revealed by our analysis of student responses to a set of standards-aligned formative assessment tasks and discuss how teachers and researchers interpreted student responses differently, even when using the same rubrics. Our study underscores the importance of carefully designed standards-aligned formative assessment tasks for monitoring student progress and demonstrates the need for teacher content knowledge to effectively use formative assessments during CS instruction.more » « less
-
We report on early-stage outcomes of a 4-year research and development project aimed at understanding how to build and sustain the capacity of teachers to instruct and formatively assess in ways that are aligned with the NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education (i.e., multi-dimensional learning). In particular, we are building a professional learning community (PLC) around assessment of the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards, predicated on teachers designing assessment tasks that support instruction.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
