Science Communities of Practice Partnership

This project will study implementation of an effective professional learning model for elementary science teachers that includes teacher leaders, administrators and university educators in a system perspective for improving science instruction in ways that make it sustainable.

Full Description

This project will study implementation of an effective professional learning model for elementary science teachers that includes teacher leaders, administrators and university educators in a system perspective for improving science instruction in ways that make it sustainable. The working model involves reciprocal communities of practice, which are groups of teachers, leaders and administrators that focus on practical tasks and how to achieve them across these stakeholder perspectives. The project will provide evidence about the specific components of the professional development model that support sustainable improvement in science teaching, will test the ways that teacher ownership and organizational conditions mediate instructional change, and will develop four tools for facilitating the teacher learning and the accompanying capacity building. In this way, the project will produce practical knowledge and tools necessary for other school districts nationwide to create professional learning that is tailored to their contexts and therefore sustainable.

This study posits that communication among district teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators, and a sense of ownership for improved instruction among teachers can support sustainable change. As such, it tests a model that fosters communication and ownership through three reciprocal communities of practice--one about district leadership including one teacher per school, coaches and university faculty; another about lesson study including teachers, coaches and faculty; and a third about instructional innovation including teachers and administrators, facilitated by coaches. The research design seeks to inform what the communities of practice add to the effects in a quasi-experimental study involving 72 third to fifth grade teachers and 6500 students in four urban school districts. Mixed methodologies will be used to examine shifts in science teaching over three years, testing the professional development model and the mediating roles of reform ownership and organizational conditions.

PROJECT KEYWORDS

Project Materials

Title Type Post date Sort ascending
Why Do Teachers Vary in Their Instructional Change During Science PD? The Role of Noticing Students in an Iterative Change Process Resource 02/06/2024 - 04:03pm
Why Does Teacher Learning Vary in Professional Development? Accounting for Organisational Conditions Resource 02/06/2024 - 03:52pm
Science Communities of Practice Partnership Poster 07/25/2023 - 08:10pm
Increasing Engagement during Online Learning through the Use of Interactive Slides Resource 07/12/2022 - 06:01pm
Science Communities of Practice Partnership Poster 07/15/2021 - 10:52am
How Facilitating K–12 Professional Development Shapes Science Faculty's Instructional Change Resource 03/19/2021 - 09:25pm
Profiles of Middle School Science Teachers: Accounting for Cognitive and Motivational Characteristics Resource 03/19/2021 - 09:16pm
Justice in Science Education: How to Honor Student Epistemologies While Supporting 3-Dimensional Science Teaching Resource 03/19/2021 - 09:08pm
A Coding Tool for Examining the Substance of Teacher Professional Learning and Change with Example Cases from Middle School Science Lesson Study Resource 05/30/2019 - 11:51am
The Diverse Faces of Teacher Leadership: A Typology and Survey Tool Resource 05/30/2019 - 11:43am
Measuring Science Instructional Practice: A Survey Tool for the Age of NGSS Resource 05/30/2019 - 11:34am
Opportunities to Participate (OtP) in Science: Examining Differences Longitudinally and Across Socioeconomically Diverse Schools Resource 03/14/2019 - 02:11pm