Improving Multi-Dimensional Assessment and Instruction: Building and Sustaining Elementary Science Teachers' Capacity through Learning Communities (Collaborative Research: Pellegrino)

The main goal of this project is to better understand how to build and sustain the capacity of elementary science teachers in grades 3-5 to instruct and formatively assess students in ways that are aligned with contemporary science education frameworks and standards. To achieve this goal, the project will use classroom-based science assessment as a focus around which to build teacher capacity in science instruction and three-dimensional learning in science.

Full Description

This is an Early-Stage Design and Development collaborative effort submitted to the assessment strand of the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) Program. Its main goal is to better understand how to build and sustain the capacity of elementary science teachers in grades 3-5 to instruct and formatively assess students in ways that are aligned with contemporary science education frameworks and standards. To achieve this goal, the project will use classroom-based science assessment as a focus around which to build teacher capacity in science instruction and three-dimensional learning in science. The three dimensions will include disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. These dimensions are described in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council; NRC, 2012), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; NGSS Lead States, 2013). The project will work closely with teachers to co-develop usable assessments and rubrics and help them to learn about three-dimensional assessment and instruction. Also, the project will work with teachers to test the developed assessments in diverse settings, and to create an active, online community of practice.

The two research questions will be: (1) How well do these assessments function with respect to aspects of validity for classroom use, particularly in terms of indicators of student proficiency, and tools to support teacher instructional practice?; and (2) In what ways do providing these assessment tasks and rubrics, and supporting teachers in their use, advance teachers' formative assessment practices to support multi-dimensional science instruction? The research and development components of this project will produce assessments and rubrics, which can directly impact students and teachers in the districts and states that have adopted the NGSS, as well as those that have embraced the vision of science teaching and learning embodied in the NRC Framework. The project will consist of five major tasks. First, the effort will iteratively develop assessments and rubrics for formative use, using an evidence-centered design approach. Second, it will collect data from evidence-based revision and redesign of the assessments from teachers piloting the assessments and rubrics, project cognitive laboratory studies with students, and an external review of the assessments design products. Third, it will study teachers' classroom use of assessments to understand and document how they blend assessment and instruction. The project will use pre/post questionnaires, video recordings, observation field notes, and pre/post interviews. Fourth, the study will build the capacity of participating teachers. Teacher Collaborators (n=9) will engage in participatory design of the assessment tasks and act as technical assistants to the overall implementation process. Teacher Implementers (n=15) will use the assessments formatively as part of their instructional practice. Finally, the work will develop a community of learners through the development of a technical assistance infrastructure, and leveraging teacher expertise to formatively assess students' work, using the assessments designed to be diagnostic and instructionally informative. External reviewers and an advisory board will provide formative feedback on the project's processes and summative evaluation of the project's results. The main outcomes of this endeavor will be prototypes of elementary science multi-dimensional assessments and new knowledge for the field on the underlying theory for developing teachers' capacity for engaging in multi-dimensional science instruction, learning, and assessment.


 Project Videos

2021 STEM for All Video Showcase
 

Title: Assessments to Support Learning in Upper Elementary Science

Presenter(s): Brian Gane, Samuel Arnold, Liz Lehman, & Jim Pellegrino


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Project Materials