120 likes | 261 Views
Symposium February 6-8, 2014. The Charge. What areas of research are most useful for large-scale efforts to improve education in geography? What strategies and methodologies will maximize the cumulative impact of research in geography education?. Recommendation 1.
E N D
Symposium February 6-8, 2014
The Charge • What areas of research are most useful for large-scale efforts to improve education in geography? • What strategies and methodologies will maximize the cumulative impact of research in geography education?
Recommendation 1 • The Committee recommends that geography • education researchers engage in systematic • efforts to identify learning progressions in • geography both within and across grade bands • (e.g., K–4, 5-8, 9-12). • Focus on Geography for Life (2nd Edition)
NSF Award DRL-1347859:Building capacity for learning progressions research in geography • PIs: Solem, Huynh, Boehm • Objective: Geographers and education researchers will receive training on how to conduct, develop, and validate learning progressions and assessments based on Standard 1 of Geography for Life: National Geography Standards (2nd Edition), which reads: • How to use maps and other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate information. • Activities: • Symposium involving geographers and learning progressions experts • Inventory and prospect study • Researcher-training workshop • Preparing infrastructure for a large-scale research program
I. Symposium: Through a collaborative process involving geographers and learning progressions experts, the symposium aims to reach consensus on a research design and methodology for developing and testing a set of hypothetical learning progressions based on Geography for Life: National Geography Standard 1.
II. Inventory and Prospect Study: To determine the range of scholars doing research that is relevant for understanding learning progressions in geography.
III. Researcher-training workshop: To prepare graduate students and early career scholars to develop, test, and refine learning progressions based on Geography Standard 1 (i.e., to implement the research design/methodology developed by the symposium). The training will be supported by a handbook published as an outcome of the symposium.
IV. Preparations for National Research: To create the infrastructure for coordinating, collecting, synthesizing and disseminating the work of the trained researchers at different locations.
Road Map GERC Recommendation:The Committee recommends the creation or designation of an institution to coordinate the implementation, dissemination, and knowledge transfer of research results.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION • Mission: • The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) will be a research consortium committed to the advancement of basic and applied research in geography education at all levels, spanning pre-K through 12, undergraduate education, graduate education, and the professional workforce. • The center will be a national service-oriented organization dedicated to the coordination, implementation, dissemination, and knowledge transfer of research in geography education. • NCRGE will also seek to develop international collaborations and networks in support of research projects that further advance the Center’s mission.
What comes next … • Follow-up proposal to NSF’s ECR program: • Core research proposal (5 years/$1.5 million) • Next deadline is February 3, 2015 (annually thereafter)