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Abstract Guiding teachers to customize curriculum has shown to improve science instruction when guided effectively. We explore how teachers use student data to customize a web-based science unit on plate tectonics. We study the implications for teacher learning along with the impact on student self-directed learning. During a professional development workshop, four 7th grade teachers reviewed logs of their students’ explanations and revisions. They used a curriculum visualization tool that revealed the pedagogy behind the unit to plan their customizations. To promote self-directed learning, the teachers decided to customize the guidance for explanation revision by giving students a choice among guidance options. They took advantage of the web-based unit to randomly assign students (N = 479) to either a guidance Choice or a no-choice condition. We analyzed logged student explanation revisions on embedded and pre-test/post-test assessments and teacher and student written reflections and interviews. Students in the guidance Choice condition reported that the guidance was more useful than those in the no-choice condition and made more progress on their revisions. Teachers valued the opportunity to review student work, use the visualization tool to align their customization with the knowledge integration pedagogy, and investigate the choice option empirically. These findings suggest that the teachers’ decision to offer choice among guidance options promoted aspects of self-directed learning.
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Spiraling” teacher learning: A novel PLC platform integrating multi-grade collaboration, classroom artifacts, and mobile technology.
We investigate how collaborative structures within and across grade levels can influence teachers' understanding of student learning trajectories across K-8 science and how teachers align their instruction with the NGSS using vertically aligned and culturally relevant storylines of natural phenomena. The Professional Learning Community (PLC) model also relies on software tools to collect classroom artifacts reflecting instruction and student thinking. We analyze how participation in this type of PLC structure influences teacher planning, practice, and self-efficacy by comparing teacher and student survey responses before and after participation. We find promising evidence of statistically significant increases in teachers’ self-efficacy, the relevance of collaboration between teachers across grade levels, and students’ exposure to science practices.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2010505
- PAR ID:
- 10557774
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Educational Research Association
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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