In this project, researchers will develop and investigate a novel professional development model to support mathematics teachers’ learning of responsive pedagogies for linguistically marginalized students. Working with secondary mathematics teachers in diverse settings in North Carolina, the project team will develop a series of workshops on linguistically responsive pedagogies tailored to participants’ challenges and school contexts. In addition to these workshops, as teachers enact linguistically responsive pedagogies in their classrooms, the research team will support their learning with video-coaching.
Projects
Geometry instruction offers unique opportunities for students to apply design thinking to authentic problems. This project supports teachers in designing and implementing lessons using a human-centered design (HCD) approach. Geometry teachers will participate in lesson study for two years to plan problem-based geometry lessons and to observe student thinking during those lessons. The project investigates how teachers learn about and apply a human-centered framework for teaching geometry.
The goal of this project is to study how secondary students come to understand better an underlying logic of natural sciences—the relation between construction of new ideas and critique of them. Science education has traditionally focused mostly on how students construct models of natural phenomena. However, critique is crucial for iterative refinement of models because in professional science, peer critique of explanatory models motivates and guides progress toward better understanding. This project engages students in this process and helps them understand the relation of critique to better explanations, by focusing students on the criteria by which critique and understanding develop together through classroom discussions.
A long-standing challenge for education and learning sciences is sharing the distinct knowledge bases of researchers and teachers with each other. The goal of this project is to support teachers, STEM coaches, and researchers in sharing that knowledge so that they can learn from one another.
This project brings together education researchers, high school science teachers, research scientists, and community-based organizations as co-design teams to modify science curriculum materials to be justice- and community-oriented. Building on existing partnerships between education researchers and 11 science teachers in two districts in Illinois, project teams will engage in cycles of curriculum analysis and adaptation over the course of 3 years. These professional learning cycles will develop pedagogically relevant content expertise, such as deepened understanding of locally relevant science phenomena, as well as infrastructure for community-engaged science instruction.
The goal of this project is to study how secondary students come to understand better an underlying logic of natural sciences—the relation between construction of new ideas and critique of them. Science education has traditionally focused mostly on how students construct models of natural phenomena. However, critique is crucial for iterative refinement of models because in professional science, peer critique of explanatory models motivates and guides progress toward better understanding. This project engages students in this process and helps them understand the relation of critique to better explanations, by focusing students on the criteria by which critique and understanding develop together through classroom discussions.
There have been prominent and widespread calls for high school science students to work with data in more complex ways that better align with and support the work of professional scientists and engineers. However, high school students' analysis and interpretation of scientific data is often limited in scope, complexity, and authentic purpose. This project aims to support and advance students' work with ecological data in high school biology classrooms by embracing a new approach: Bayesian data analysis methods. Such methods involve expressing initial ideas or beliefs and updating them quantitatively with data that students access or record. This project will empower 20 high school teachers and their approximately 1,200 students to make sense of data within and beyond classroom contexts. It also will involve sharing research findings, an educational technology tool for Bayesian data analysis, and curricular resources in open and accessible ways.
A long-standing challenge for education and learning sciences is sharing the distinct knowledge bases of researchers and teachers with each other. The goal of this project is to support teachers, STEM coaches, and researchers in sharing that knowledge so that they can learn from one another.
There is a need for resources for teacher education programs to help pre-service teachers learn about equitable mathematics approaches to teaching and learning. This project will develop modules, resources, and tools for exploring how teachers' understanding of equity changes from their last year of the preparation program into their first year of teaching. The tools and resources can be shared with other teacher education programs.
There is a need for resources for teacher education programs to help pre-service teachers learn about equitable mathematics approaches to teaching and learning. This project will develop modules, resources, and tools for exploring how teachers' understanding of equity changes from their last year of the preparation program into their first year of teaching. The tools and resources can be shared with other teacher education programs.
There is a need for resources for teacher education programs to help pre-service teachers learn about equitable mathematics approaches to teaching and learning. This project will develop modules, resources, and tools for exploring how teachers' understanding of equity changes from their last year of the preparation program into their first year of teaching. The tools and resources can be shared with other teacher education programs.
This research synthesis study reviews the effects of professional learning interventions and will advance STEM educators' understanding of the critically important relationships among teacher professional learning (PL), teacher knowledge and practice, and average student effects. Understanding these relationships will allow the field to design better PL experiences for teachers that truly benefit student learning.
This exploratory study aims to design, implement, and test climate science and history professional learning materials and experiences for high school teachers. By leveraging existing science and history/social science materials, the program will develop curricular planning tools and lessons to help teachers integrate climate literacy into their instructional units. The goal is to provide students with the knowledge to understand and respond to the social and environmental issues associated with the climate crisis.
This research synthesis systematically reviews and meta-analyzes the evidence on relationships between teacher support, student engagement, and mathematics achievement in the instructional–relational model framework. The researchers rigorously examine the consistency and variability of the relationships between the domains and constructs across studies.
This project investigates the STEM teacher pipeline and examine qualifications, from teacher candidates who express interest in teaching STEM through to the eventual career paths of teachers in the workforce. In doing so, the project examines how the supply of STEM teachers has changed over time, whether the supply is adequate in meeting the needs of a changing nation, the qualifications and credentials of STEM teachers, and the implications of the STEM teacher career paths for equity and serving high needs contexts and students.
The project addresses the historic marginalization of women and minoritized racial/ethnic (MRE) groups in physics. The aim of the project is to co-design, test, and disseminate professional learning for high school physics teachers, specifically targeting the implementation of inclusive and equitable practices that support physics identity development and persistence of women and MRE groups.
This RAPID project responds to the Buffalo blizzard of 2022 (Buffalo, NY) by developing, with and for the community, a science education curriculum framework focused on disaster justice and resilience. This project will document the science education human and social impact of the blizzard by capturing the experiences, reflections, and needs of science teachers, Black and Brown community leaders, and families who were directly affected.
Online STEM credit courses have become attractive to school leaders as a way to support students who fail STEM courses in face-to-face school year settings. However, there is little research about the processes involved in how schools make decisions regarding student credit recovery. The available research focuses solely on student results and is not definitive enough to support important policy decisions at the district level. This research brings redress to this policy dilemma.
The project addresses the historic marginalization of women and minoritized racial/ethnic (MRE) groups in physics. The aim of the project is to co-design, test, and disseminate professional learning for high school physics teachers, specifically targeting the implementation of inclusive and equitable practices that support physics identity development and persistence of women and MRE groups.
This project is an innovative exploratory research study focused on developing a high school environmental engineering curriculum that addresses the challenges posed by climate change. The curriculum follows a model-validate-iterate design paradigm, where students model dynamic real-world systems, validate their models using data, and create multiple iterations to explore changes in the system over time. The project aims to cultivate a new generation of environmental engineers who possess the necessary skills to analyze complex systems, collaborate with diverse communities, and develop creative solutions.
The project addresses the historic marginalization of women and minoritized racial/ethnic (MRE) groups in physics. The aim of the project is to co-design, test, and disseminate professional learning for high school physics teachers, specifically targeting the implementation of inclusive and equitable practices that support physics identity development and persistence of women and MRE groups.
Teachers are extraordinarily important to student learning, but researchers have surprisingly little data about what teachers do moment-to-moment with students. What are the instructional moves and improvisational responses that characterize highly effective practice? To better understand and support U.S. K-12 STEM teachers, this Incubator project will develop a network of "tutor observatories." Tutor observatories are learning environments that record teacher engagements with students along with information about the context of the interaction. From these data, researchers will be able to gain a deeper understanding of STEM teacher practice, identify highly effective practices, and develop training data that can inform a new generation of artificially intelligent tools to support teachers and student learning.
This project examines how Latine, bilingual teachers' dispositions to teach science and engineering to bilingual learners change as they enter the teaching profession. Specifically, it explores bilingual teachers' transition from a period of strong social support to one of scarce social support, i.e., from being Bilingual Teacher Candidates to Novice Bilingual Teachers (NBTs) as they plan and teach bilingual science and engineering lessons.
This project envisions a future of work where advanced technologies provide automated, job-embedded, individualized feedback to drive professional learning of the future worker. To achieve this goal, it addresses a fundamental question: Are evaluative or non-evaluative feedback systems more effective in driving professional learning? This question will be tested on professionals where objective, fine-grained feedback is especially critical to improvement--the teaching professions. This research will be situated within English and language arts (ELA) instruction in middle and high school classrooms, where underperformance and inequality in literacy outcomes are persistent problems facing the U.S. Current methods of supporting teacher learning through feedback are sparse, cumbersome, subjective, and evaluative. Thus, a major reconceptualization is needed to provide feedback mechanisms that- meaningfully affect teacher practice and are accessible to all. In partnership with TeachFX, an industry leader in technology-enabled instructional feedback, this project will work with teachers to design and test systems of automated feedback. Insights from the study will lead to feedback systems that empower teaching professionals, generate continued professional learning, and ultimately, increase student achievement.
This project envisions a future of work where advanced technologies provide automated, job-embedded, individualized feedback to drive professional learning of the future worker. To achieve this goal, it addresses a fundamental question: Are evaluative or non-evaluative feedback systems more effective in driving professional learning? This question will be tested on professionals where objective, fine-grained feedback is especially critical to improvement--the teaching professions. This research will be situated within English and language arts (ELA) instruction in middle and high school classrooms, where underperformance and inequality in literacy outcomes are persistent problems facing the U.S. Current methods of supporting teacher learning through feedback are sparse, cumbersome, subjective, and evaluative. Thus, a major reconceptualization is needed to provide feedback mechanisms that- meaningfully affect teacher practice and are accessible to all. In partnership with TeachFX, an industry leader in technology-enabled instructional feedback, this project will work with teachers to design and test systems of automated feedback. Insights from the study will lead to feedback systems that empower teaching professionals, generate continued professional learning, and ultimately, increase student achievement.