| NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 17, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 23, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1721003 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Gavin Fulmer
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,090,899.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,090,899.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A PHILADELPHIA PA US 19104-6205 (215)898-7293 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3700 Walnut St. Philadelphia PA US 19104-6216 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Discovery Research K-12 |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.
This proposal, BioGraph 2.0 - Online Professional Development for High School Biology Teachers for Teaching and Learning About Complex Systems, will develop and test an open-access, online system of professional development for high school biology teachers in order to build pedagogical competencies for teaching about complex systems and to support the application of those competencies in high school biology classrooms. The online teacher professional development (PD) will be delivered through the edX open access platform.
This research project will include two cycles of design and development of the professional development experience. It will include mixed methods and a longitudinal examination of teacher and student learning fostered by professional development. The research for the first phase will be qualitative in nature and will result in a series of case studies that highlight different facets of the interactions that influence teachers' learning. Following this qualitative phase, through a field study that employs multivariate analysis of covariance and hierarchical linear models analytical techniques, the effectiveness of the design and development stages will be compared to an alternative professional development experience that is similar to the project's professional development but does not include collaborative design. The broad aim is to develop and test an open-access, online system of professional development (PD) that includes solutions for known challenges in teacher online PD. The project builds on a prior NSF-funded exploratory project. The project will employ a randomized control trial to assess the effectiveness of PD on improving teacher content knowledge and skills, changes in classroom practices and instruction, curriculum engagement by students and student achievement outcomes with an end goal to understand better what facilitates online PD and to create a low cost scalable and online version of the original NSF-funded BioGraph. This research will produce insights and guidelines that can immediately be incorporated into the emerging field of online professional development, and online education in general. The content goals are to build pedagogical competencies for teaching about complex systems and to support the application of those competencies in high school biology classrooms.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The BioGraph 2.0 - Online Professional Development for High School Biology Teachers for Teaching and Learning About Complex Systems, developed and tested an open-access, online system of professional development for high school biology teachers. There were three broad research goals: 1) to enable anywhere anytime access of previous NSF-funded curricular materials that use an agent-based modeling tool (StarLogo Nova) to support student learning of complex biological systems; 2) to develop a set of optimal practices for developing online teacher communities; 3) to understand the impact of a professional development (PD) social capital design on teacher and student learning and participation.
The project developed a highly usable asynchronous online PD course on the edX MOOC platform. During the life of the project, this course was freely available to educators. The project realized a number of outcomes related to the research goals. First, the course was taken by over 440 educators across the globe spanning more than 20 different countries. Through multiple published studies (disseminated in four journal articles, three proceedings, six conference presentations, and one book chapter) the project found that:
1) High-quality curriculum and instructional materials can be designed for anywhere anytime access through teachers? investigations of exemplary videos of authentic classroom instruction, discussion board interactions that have been scaffolded for teacher interactivity around their content understanding, mastery of the scientific practices of modeling, and beliefs about classroom implementation, online facilitation by experienced practicing teachers, and examinations of problems of practice that are applicable to teachers? local contexts.
2) Online teacher communities should focus on methods for developing trust among each other to promote professional sharing. Developing trust in this way is difficult in online environments. However, some strategies that the project has found to be beneficial include: periodic synchronous meet-ups, curated connections between teachers by facilitators, grouping of teachers in discussion groups along affinity characteristics, such as geographic location, and extending the PD beyond the course through informal social media platforms, e.g., WhatsApp.
3) Working in cohorts of teachers where they have repeated opportunities to interact with the same teachers in the PD can support community building in online courses. However, due to the time constraints of teaching, ongoing participation in PD is challenging and can impact completion rates. Offering multiple chances for teachers to move to different cohorts can mitigate these challenges. This can alleviate pressures felt by teachers to keep up with the PD activities and promote feelings of confidence in having the time to finish the course.
4) Online asynchronous PD experiences for teachers can be just as effective as in-person PD experiences with respect to their ability to teach with curricular materials and to impact student learning and participation outcomes. However, by offering PD online with the benefits of anywhere anytime access and self-pacing, high-quality curricular and instructional resources can reach many more teachers. One critical aspect yet to be fully explored is how to tailor PD materials to be culturally relevant, e.g., selecting representative images and cases that are investigated in the course.
Last Modified: 11/23/2021
Modified by: Susan A Yoon
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