The goal of this study is to produce an "existence proof" of how an educative learning progression designed for high school biology teachers and their students can be used to improve instruction, and as a consequence, improve student outcomes. A learning progression consists of sequences of increasingly sophisticated ideas intended as guides for curriculum and assessment development for a particular science topic or "big idea". The study focuses on a learning progression for student understanding of natural selection designed to be educative; that is, to improve teachers' understanding of natural selection and deepen their understanding of why it is difficult for students to learn. The learning progression serves as a scaffold for teachers in inquiry-based settings by helping them to anticipate not only the ideas that students have, but also suggest instructional strategies tailored to these ideas. The PI would partner with about 12 biology teachers in two high schools in diverse schools in a large Colorado district to conduct this five-year research project on this educative learning progression.
This study will be guided by three research questions: -How does engagement with the learning progression impact teachers' ability to design instructional experiences, as well as recognize and respond to student thinking? -How do teachers' practices change over time through repeated use of the educative learning progression? -How does teachers' engagement with the learning progression impact student learning? This project focuses on 12 biology teachers at two schools, and includes about 35 biology classes over five years with about 25 students per class, for a total of about 900 students. The project establishes baseline data for teachers' instructional practice in Year 1, and measures student learning with a pre-post assessment of students' natural selection understanding for each class taught by each teacher. In the following years, the study would track and measure changes in teachers' classroom practices when teaching natural selection, using a multiple methods approach. The goal is to see whether changes in teachers' instructional practices are associated with changes in student learning about evolution. The study uses HLM to model student growth for each year, and models growth for each teacher using teacher content and instructional strategies codes to predict student outcomes. A strong advisory board guides the evaluation of this research.
This study is important because of increasing interest in the development of learning progressions as guides for the development of standards, assessments, and curriculum and instruction. However, to date, there have been no close studies of how a learning progression can serve as a guide for instruction or how sustained professional development centered on a learning progression can improve classroom practice and student learning outcomes. This study can inform the field about how students learn natural selection, and how teachers may come to teach it more effectively. Through these contributions, it will also provide implications for the design of new curriculum materials and guidance for focused, sophisticated, and effective professional development.
