SRI is developing a formative assessment intervention that integrates existing classroom network technologies (GroupScribbles and Classroom Performance Systems), interactive formative assessments, and contingent curriculum activities to help teachers adjust instruction to improve middle school student learning of selected Earth science concepts (the rock cycle, forces that shape Earth's surface, and plate tectonics). To test the hypothesis that integrating response system technology, assessment, and curriculum can improve K-12 science teaching and learning, the project is developing and testing (1) pedagogical routines for teachers to follow when using classroom network technologies, (2) diagnostic questions for teachers to elicit student preconceptions, (3) decision rules for teachers to use alternative learning activities that supplement an existing geoscience curriculum, (4) training materials that prepare teachers to enact the intervention, and (5) research- and classroom-based instruments that measure changes in teacher instructional practice, student thinking, and student achievement. The intervention is being tested in two urban school districts located in two western states (Colorado and California) that have ethnically and economically diverse student populations.
Improving the quality of classroom assessment can significantly boost student achievement. Research syntheses show that when teachers pose good questions, involve students in discussion and reflection on their own ideas, and make use of feedback from assessment to guide instruction, students learn more. Evidence from intervention studies, however, indicates that it is difficult to improve the quality of classroom assessment. Teachers do not always know what questions to pose or how to lead rich discussions of ideas. In addition, even when teachers get good feedback on student thinking, they do not always know how to adjust instruction on the basis of what they learn. The Contingent Pedagogies Project aimed to improve the quality of teachers’ classroom assessment in middle school Earth science. The assessment activities of the project were co-developed with teachers and embedded within those teachers’ adopted science curriculum. Teachers found the assessment activities easy to implement and useful in their instruction. More important, we found that the quality of teachers’ assessment practice improved and students learned more from the curriculum. Using a quasi-experimental study design, we compared the teaching practice and student achievement outcomes of 12 teachers who received professional development in how to use the activities to teaching and student learning outcomes of 7 teachers who volunteered to be part of a comparison group. In the study, student achievement was significantly higher in the treatment group than in the comparison group. In the assessment activities, teachers posed questions intended to elicit problematic student ideas, sometimes called misconceptions, using student response system technology ("clickers"). The questions were developed to align with the goals of the curriculum, and the response options were based on research on students’ problematic ideas conducted as part of the project. The questions provided an opportunity for teachers to find out what students knew before and after instruction in a particular topic. In this particular curriculum, instruction involved a combination of direct science investigations and readings. Contingent Pedagogies included supports for teachers to engage students in discussion of and reflection on their ideas. We found teachers’ implementation of these supports was positively correlated with achievement gains. One support was a set of classroom norms—developed by teachers—introduced at the beginning of the school year to set the expectation for students that they should defend their ideas with evidence, participate actively in classroom activities, and challenge the ideas of their classmates without putting other students down. A second support was a set of classroom "talk moves," phrases that teachers could use to spark discussion, encourage students to support their ideas with evidence, and promote students’ challenging each others’ ideas. Finally, another key feature of the project was a set of "Contingent Activities" that teachers could implement if—even after instruction—many students were still struggling to understand the core ideas taught in the curriculum materials. These activities helped address the problem of "what to do next" after gathering assessment evidence. While they targeted the same goals as the regular curriculum, the Contingent Activities were different from the curriculum in that they required students to interpret and make sense of models to explain and predict phenomena. Interpreting and making sense of models is a key practice in science. A disappointing result was that teachers made less use of the Contingent Activities than other tools. There was too little time to implement them in their classrooms. The Contingent Pedagogies materials are available on the Web (www.contingentpedagogies.org/). In addition, we continue to work with the school district where we developed and tested the materials, and we plan to test the approach in a new biology curriculum developed in collaboration with BSCS in Colorado Springs, CO. As part of a separate initiative, we are studying what supports may be needed to help English Language Learners/Emerging Bilinguals participate in the kinds of discussions promoted in the Contingent Pedagogies Project.
