Developing A Discourse Observation Tool and Online Professional Development to Promote Science, Oral Language and Literacy Development from the Start of School

The goal of this project is to develop a classroom observation tool and an online professional development model to help early-elementary teachers improve science instruction among young learners by cultivating scientific discourse.

Full Description

The goal of this project is to develop resources and a professional development model to help early-elementary teachers improve science instruction among young learners by cultivating scientific discourse. A central component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is engaging students in discourse with a focus on formulating and communicating scientific explanations. This project will develop a classroom observation tool that will help teachers examine changes in the quantity and quality of science discourse in K-2 classrooms over time. The project will also develop an online professional development (PD) model that uses the new observation tool to help teachers analyze their own classroom practices and the practice of others to improve classroom efforts to foster improved scientific discourse.

This early stage design and development study will employ a Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) approach to develop the new classroom observation tool and online professional development model, and then seek answers to the following research questions: 1) How can a classroom observation measure be developed to effectively capture the range in quality of science discourse in early elementary classrooms?; 2) How can an online PD model be developed based on the new observation tool?; 3) How do teachers' knowledge and instructional practice change over the course of participation in the yearlong PD?; and 4) How does the quantity and quality of science discourse change in K-2 classrooms over the course of teachers' participation in a yearlong online PD experience that is built around the new observation tool? The project will engage 36 teachers and their 36 different classrooms in Michigan and use multiple data sources to understand whether and how teacher knowledge and instructional practices change during participation in the new PD model. Multiple iterations of design, data collection, and refinement will be used to understand how, when, and why features of the PD and observation tool might combine to transform science discourse in early elementary classrooms. In years 3 and 4, the project team will conduct two year-long implementation trials with cohorts of 15 teachers and 5 instructional coaches (experienced science teachers) who will use the PD and tool in order study their implementation and make iterative improvements. The project will also gather data to understand changes in teacher knowledge and practice as well as video data to document changes in classroom discourse.

PROJECT KEYWORDS

Project Materials

Title Type Post date Sort ascending
SOLID Start K-2 Curriculum Materials Resource 06/24/2020 - 03:29pm