During the first phase of the project, the team designed, implemented, and refined the PD in two districts across two years. LCD PD remains embedded in these districts and continues to support teachers involved in the project.
In the next phase of the project, the field test, we are comparing the impact of two professional development (PD) models, Learning through Collaborative Design and Learning through Participation in Classroom Activity. Both models support teachers’ learning about ambitious science teaching, where students conduct investigations (something already familiar to you) while thinking through and reasoning about the results of those investigations and how to communicate them (something that has received less attention in the past). In both models of PD, teachers will engage in an introductory 6 days summer institute and four cycles of PD during the school year. The summer and school year PD cycles will give you opportunities to connect and work with your colleagues, getting and giving support as you work to benefit your students’ science learning.
Involvement in this project will provide you with the skills to engage your students in sensemaking in science through talk AND will provide the field with valuable insight into effective designs for science teacher professional development.
Because this project is a scientific investigation, we are interested in comparing two models of PD to see which is the most effective in supporting teacher learning. With that goal in mind, participating teachers will be assigned to one of three groups: Learning through Collaborative Design (6 days of summer 2021 and in school cycles in 2021-22), Learning through Participation in Activity (6 days of summer 2021 and in school cycles in 2021-22), and Results-Based PD (i.e.,control group; no treatment in summer 2021 or the 2021-2022 school year, instead PD in the summer of 2022).
The control group is essential in understanding the effects of the two treatments and maintaining a rigorous investigation design. While teachers in this group will not receive PD during the summer of 2021, they will receive PD during the summer of 2022. This PD will similarly focus on supporting and refining teacher practice in ways that turn science classrooms into spaces where students engage in productive science talk to learn about scientific phenomena in meaningful ways. This PD, however, will benefit from the lessons learned during the two PDs that occur in the summer of 2021 and will provide teachers with an immersive experience representing the most useful features from both PDs.
Commitment Structure -
- Optional 2022 Summer PD
- Pre/post teacher surveys
- Data collection around four focal lessons for two classes during the 2021/2022 school year
Focus of this PD - The key foci of this PD is (1) engaging teachers through the role of a student and as pedagogical learners to consider how the student experience can be leveraged to support talk in science classrooms and (2) to help teachers design, analyze, and refine their practice in collaboration with their peers.
Overview of this PD - During the summer portion of the PD, teachers will collaboratively engage in and examine instructional tools that are grounded in research and have been shown to promote student talk. During the school year, teachers will come together to collaboratively design lessons with other teachers around four important elements of instruction that support student thinking through talk (i.e., Anchoring phenomena and student thinking, leveraging student ideas and reasoning for sensemaking, teaching students to talk about and build from evidence, and using student ideas to move towards he end goal of scientifically explaining phenomena.)Teachers will teach these co-designed lessons in their classrooms before coming back together to collaboratively examine video clips of moments from these lessons.
What's different about this PD - What sets us apart from others is the immersive and collaborative nature of the PD across the school year, the focus on supporting productive student talk about science, something that can be difficult for even the most veteran teachers, and the analysis of classroom episodes in collaboration with peers and expert science educators.
Focus of this PD - The key foci of this PD is (1) engaging teachers through the role of a student and as pedagogical learners to consider how the student experience can be leveraged to support talk in science classrooms and (2) to help teachers reflect on the success of lessons taught to support student talk across the school year.
Overview of this PD - During the summer portion of the PD, teachers will engage in and examine instructional tools that are grounded in research and have been shown to promote student talk. During the academic year, teachers will come together to reflect after teaching four lessons designed to support student sensemaking about core scientific ideas.
What's different about this PD - What sets this PD apart from others is the immersive nature of the PD focused on supporting productive student talk about science, something that can be difficult for even the most veteran teachers, and the opportunity to reflect on the success of supporting student talk around focal lessons.
