The session will feature the experiences, outcomes, and materials from two engineering-oriented DR K-12 projects. The two projects, INFUSE and INSPIRES, use different approaches to teacher professional development with the goal of preparing science teachers to infuse or integrate engineering into their classrooms. They have both developed a unique set of materials designed to impact science and technology outcomes (working on a combination of curriculum development, professional development, and research).

This session will focus on implementations of curriculum materials, especially with regard to ambitious mathematics and pedagogy, and participants will consider how materials are interpreted and enacted, and the means of support that facilitate development of ambitious mathematics and pedagogy. Presenters from three DR K-12 projects will share frameworks and findings from their work, followed by participant discussion.

School districts play a critical role in supporting the development of school-level capacity for instructional improvement. Yet, our knowledge on what it takes to achieve district-wide improvement in mathematics instruction and student learning is still limited.  The objectives of this panel presentation are: 1) to share, compare, and discuss findings on district leadership for scaling up instructional improvement at various sites, and 2) to identify common aspects of district leadership critical for scaling up ambitious and equitable mathematics instruction. 

A pressing need for science education researchers, as well as classroom teachers and assessment designers, is determining how to assess student learning in settings where instruction is aiming to meet the vision of the Framework for K-12 Science Education.

A challenge for researchers and federal research funding institutions in the 21st century is how to get the word out on how research is pertinent and being used in by the field. According to Neild (2016, p1):

In this interactive panel symposium, presenters will draw from a set of active DR K-12 projects to explore a diverse array of resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to operationalize varying perspectives on scientific modeling in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms across disciplinary domains.

Often the most we know about our colleagues’ on-the-ground support of teachers is what we read in the methods sections of research articles, or what has been reified many times over in their published teacher learning materials. We rarely get to see, much less experience, one another’s approaches to supporting teachers. This session will open up the black-box of our work with teachers for discussion and scrutiny.

Professional development projects aim to improve student learning by directly impacting teachers. However, the work of teachers (and thus the potential impact of professional development) is often impacted by a number of policy and context-related factors. This poses a challenge not only in programming designed to impact teachers, but also to the ability to detect these impacts through rigorous research designs.

Over the past five years, research teams at Western Washington University and North Carolina State University have each conducted longitudinal studies to examine elementary teacher development in mathematics and science. Specifically, they have investigated the development of pre-service/novice teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices during teacher preparation and into their initial years of teaching. 

The vision of meaningful learning in science from NGSS and the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education requires reform efforts that address 1) curricular issues (what is being taught); and 2) pedagogical practices (what teaching will look like with emphasis on both the practices of science and engineering and the integration of the Common Core State Standards – English Language Arts).