Bridging the Gap Between National Needs and Local Implementation in K12 STEM Education

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Bridging the Gap Between National Needs and Local
Implementation in K-12 STEM Education

• Anthony Petrosino (U of Texas)
• In Collaboration with
• Drs. Alene Harris (Vanderbilt), Stacey Klein
  (Vanderbilt) and
• David Kanter (Northwestern)
• November 30, 2006

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Our major deliverables all support the
development, implementation and assessment of
educational processes, materials and
technologies.
This work is supported primarily by the
Engineering Research Centers program of the
National Science Foundation under annual grant
EEC-9876363.
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Partnerships in Education and Research (PER) and
Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Four
Distinct K-12 Research Programs
Collaboration between secondary classroom
teachers and university researchers working
with schools with high minority
populations.
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Hundreds of Teachers, Thousands of Minds
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Fact
Source A Commitment to Americas Future
Responding to the Crisis in Mathematics and
Science Education by the Business and Higher
Education Forum (BHEF). Feb 2005.
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Fact
Source 1995 Third International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS).
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Fact
Source 2000 National Association of Educational
Progress.
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Fact
Source Crisis at the Core Preparing All
Students for College and Work by the ACT. Oct
2004.
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Fact
Source Department of Education
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Fact
The U.S. Department of Education, requires that
teachers use only research-based teaching
methods,
and states require that instruction be based on
national and state standards.
Source Department of Education
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National Needs

• Create/Train more scientists (grooming vs taking
  from the top)
• Increase Scientific/Mathematical Literacy
• Improve K-12 Education (specifically in Reading,
  Science and Mathematics)
• Creation of a Competitive International Work Force

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Key Issue 1

• How can we simultaneously meet national needs to
  train more scientists while at the same time meet
  national needs to improve K-12 education and
  help teachers and students do what they're
  supposed to be doing in school?

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Key Issue 2

• How do we take assessment seriously for the
  purpose of meeting both of the aforementioned
  national needs for improving K-12 learning and
  grooming future scientists?

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Key Issue 3

• How Do We Begin to think about Professional
  Development that is transformative for teachers?

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1. Simultaneously Meeting Multiple National Needs

• It takes real work to get there and it's not
  something that scientists working alone or even
  with a teacher director of outreach can do
• It needs to be more intertwined with the work of
  schools from the outset
• For many districts it is on the order of a full
  year of high school or several full years of
  middle school

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Multi-faceted Approach
UTeach Program
Pre-Service Teacher Preparation Colleges of
Education and Natural Sciences
VaNTH PER
In-Service Teacher Preparation
K-12 Curriculum Development, Implementation and
Research
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2. Taking Assessment Seriously

• We need to seriously assess student learning and
  bring our best ideas about scientific research to
  bear on this question and contribute to it as
  opposed to thinking that this kind of research
  has any lesser requirements for standards of
  evidence than does our own disciplinary research
• In essence, we should expect to have to prove
  that these interventions worked

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VaNTH Assessment Results
Matched Pre-/Post-Comparisons of Same/Comparable
Experimental
Classrooms and Control Classrooms in

• private high school
• public magnet schools
• public comprehensive high schools

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University of Texas at Austins
Bioengineering-Based
PER Modules
Pre-/Post- comparison of instructional
scaffolding strategies using Legacy Cycle
demonstrates that students increase their scores
using Legacy Cycle, regardless of scaffolding
used.
INCREASE IN EXPERTISE METRIC
TYPE OF SCAFFOLDING
p VALUES
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Prompts
plt.0001
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No Prompts
plt.0001
Reflective Self-Assessment
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p.0003
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Northwesterns I, Bio RET Project
Pre-Post comparisons of experimental and control
groups demonstrate positive significant effects
in academic learning. Effect size measures
indicate a large (0.86) to very large (3.43)
strength of effects.
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Vanderbilts Bioengineering-Related
Modules RET Project
CONTENT EFFECT SIZE
TRANSFER EFFECT SIZE
Pre-Post comparisons of experimental and control
groups demonstrate positive significant effects
in academic learning and transfer. Effect size
measures indicate moderate (0.55) to very large
(2.12) strength of effects.
UNIT
0.76
Balance
1.03
0.55
ECG (physics)
0.71
0.72
ECG (biology)
0.38
Iron Cross
NS
0.97
Imaging
1.60
2.12
Swimming
1.29
1.78
Optics/LASIK
NS
1.52
Hemodynamics
NS
NS
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3. Professional Development That is transformative

• There's a real need to worry about teacher
  capacity (Content Knowledge and more importantly
  Pedagogical Content Knowledge)
• We need to understand how little a teacher might
  get out of a summer in a given investigator's lab
  that help them with the questions of teaching and
  learning in K-12
• We cannot Emphasize the process of science w/o
  dealing with that teachers' own deep-seated
  misconceptions about the subject matter or help
  them learn how to better teach the subject matter
  to their students

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Professional Development Theoretical Basis
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Theoretical Basis

• Novices and experts organize knowledge
  differently.

• Previous knowledge often becomes inert
  knowledge that is not accessed when needed.

• Traditional teaching often produces inert
  knowledge.

• Macro-context lessons keep knowledge from
  becoming inert -- e.g., Legacy Cycle, Anchored
  Instruction.

• Rich, contextually-based lessons allow students
  to deeply engage with a problem.

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Questions?