Richard A. Duschl Penn State University NARST President

1. Evolving Scientific Practices Council of State Science Supervisors – NSTA Philadelphia March 17, 2010 Richard A. Duschl Penn State University NARST President

2. CSSS SPEAKERS • Mike Lach – STEM and ESEA • Tom Corcoran – Learning Progressions • Heidi Schweingruber, Tom Keller, Brett Moulding – Frameworks and Standards • Eugenie Scott – Science Controversies • Chris Lazzaro – AP Reform College Board • Francis Eberle – NSTA and Affiliates

3. REFORM CONVERSATIONS“Aligning the Planets” – Jay Labov • NRC – Taking Science to School, Ready Set Science! • NAEP – 2009 Science Framework • 21st Century Skills – International Assessments • College Board – AP Science Exams • NSTA – Science Anchors • NJ – Science as Practices • Carneige Corp. NY – The Opportunity Equation • NRC – Core Science Standards

4. National Research Council (2000) National Research Council (2005)

5. THE NATURE OF RECENT POLICY AND POLITICAL STORMS:ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS Recommendations: • Teacher Education (“104 Teachers/107 Minds”) • Strengthen professional development for 250,000 teachers (including AP, IB) • Increase pipeline of future science and math majors by strengthening AP, IB • 25,000 4-yr. undergraduate scholarships per year for STEM • 5,000 new graduate fellowships per year in areas of greatest national need

6. ATTRACTING AND RETAINING STUDENTS FOR STEM • Pipelines - Self/System Selection • (NSF, NRC) • Mines - Teacher Selection/Encouragement • (Wilson Quarterly) Pre K K-5 6-10 11-16

7. PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES • Economic arguments don’t seem to motivate students, at least initially. • Sciences do not stand alone • Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth System Sciences • Implications for Teacher PD • Core Knowledge Critically Important • Thematic “Knowledge-In-Use” • Scientific Practices & Making Thinking Visible • Talk, Argument, Modeling, Representation • Critique and Communication

8. TAKING SCIENCE TO SCHOOL • Children entering school already have substantial knowledge of the natural world, much of it implicit. • Contrary to older views, young children are not concrete and simplistic thinkers. • Research now shows that their thinking is surprisingly sophisticated. They can use a wide range of reasoning processes that form the underpinnings of scientific thinking, even though their experience is variable and they have much more to learn.

9. TSTS SUMMARY - CHILDREN’S LEARNING • Young children are more competent than we think. They can think abstractly early on and do NOT go through universal, well defined stages. • Focusing on misconceptions can cause us to overlook leverage points for learning. Students’ intuitions are important! • Developing rich, conceptual knowledge takes time and requires instructional support. • Conceptual knowledge, scientific reasoning, understanding how scientific knowledge is produced, and participating in science are intimately intertwined in the doing of science.

10. 4 STRANDS OF SCIENTIFIC PROFICIENCY • Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. • Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. • Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. • Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.

11. TAKING SCIENCE TO SCHOOLRESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS Critical Areas for Research and Development

12. 1-Learning Across the 4 Strands • Recommendations • 4 Strands of Sci. Proficiency • Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. • Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. • Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. • Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. • Critical Research • Current focus on domain-general, domain-specific for 1 & 2; need research on Strands 3 & 4. • Learning & Mediation • Instructional Contexts • More research on interconnections of all 4 strands to inform instructional models

13. 2-Core Ideas and Learning Progressions • Recommendations • Findings from research about children’s learning and development can be used to map learning progressions (LPs) in science. • Core ideas should be central to a discipline of science, accessible to students in kindergarten, and have potential for sustained exploration across K-8. • Teaching Science Practices during investigations • Argumentation and explanation • Model building • Debate and decision making • Critical Research • Requires an extensive R&D effort before LPs are well established and tested. • Step 1 - Id the most generative and powerful core ideas for students’ science learning • Step 2 - Develop and test LPs • Step 3 Establish empirical basis for LPs: • Focused studies under controlled conditions • Small-scale instructional interventions • Classroom-based studies in a variety of contexts • Longitudinal studies

14. WHAT IS SCIENCE? • Science involves: • Building theories and models • Constructing arguments • Using specialized ways of talking, writing and representing phenomena • Science is a social phenomena with unique norms for participation in a community of peers

15. TEACHING SCIENCE AS PRACTICE • Curriculum topics focusing on meaningful problems • Students designing and conducting empirical investigations, • Instruction that links investigations to a base level of knowledge, • Frequent opportunities for engagement in argumentation that leads to building and refining explanations and models, • Thoughtful interactions with texts. (Chapter 9)

16. TEACHING SCIENCE PRACTICES • 1. Science in Social Interactions • A. Participation in argumentation that leads to refining knowledge claims • B. Coordination of evidence to build and refine theories and models • 2. The Specialized Language of Science • A. Identify and ask questions • B. Describe epistemic status of an idea • C. Critique an idea apart from the author or proponent • 3. Work with Scientific Representations and Tools • A. Use diagrams, figures, visualizations and mathematical representations to convey complex ideas, patterns, trends and proposed.

19. PATTERN (MODELED EVIDENCE) • Presenting evidence; Mathematical modeling; Evidence-based model building; Masters use of mathematical, physical and computational tools;

20. EVIDENCE (DATA USE) • Use results of measurement and observation; Generating evidence; Structuring evidence, Construct and defend arguments; Mastering conceptual understanding;

21. 3-Curriculum & Instruction • Recommendations • The strands emphasize the idea of “knowledge in use” – that is students’ knowledge is not static and proficiency involves deploying knowledge and skills across all four strands. • Students are more likely to advance in their understanding of science when classrooms provide learning opportunities that attend to all four strands • Science is a social phenomena with unique norms for participation in a community of peers • Critical Research • Understand whether and how instruction should change with students’ development • Develop clear depictions of scientific practices across K-8 through replication of classroom-based instruction (e.g., design studies). • Develop assessment tools to help teachers diagnose students’ understanding • Understand characteristics of instruction that best serve diverse student populations • Develop curriculum materials studied under varied conditions

22. TSTS: Teaching Science as Practice All major aspects of inquiry, including posing scientifically fruitful questions, managing the process, making sense of the data, and discussing the results may require guidance. To advance students’ conceptual understanding, prior knowledge and questions should be evoked and linkedto experiences with phenomena, investigations, and data. Discourse and classroom discussions are key to supporting learning in science.

23. NJ ASSESSMENTSSCIENCE PRACTICES • Standard: 5.1 Science Practices: Science is both body of knowledge and an evidence-based model building enterprise that continually extends, refines, and revises knowledge.The four science practices strands encompass the knowledge and reasoning skills that students must acquire to be proficient in science.

24. SCIENCE PRACTICES • Strand: A. Understand Scientific Explanations • Strand: B. Generate Scientific Evidence through Active Investigations • Strand: C. Reflect on Scientific Knowledge • Strand: D. Participate Productively in Science

30. TEACHING SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY NSF CONFERENCE, FEBRUARY 2005 • Recommendations for Research & Implementation: • Enhanced ‘Scientific Method’ - based on dialogical practices • Extended Immersion Units of Instruction - conceptual, epistemic, social goals • Teacher Professional Development Models

31. SCIENTIFIC METHOD - 2 VIEWS • Traditional Version: Individual Cognitive Tasks • Make Observations • Formulate a hypothesis • Deduce consequences from hypothesis • Make observations to test consequences • Accept/reject hypothesis • Enhanced Version: Group Cognitive, Social & Epistemic Tasks • Posing, refining, evaluating questions • Designing, refining, interpreting experiments • Collecting representing analyzing data • Relating data to hypotheses/models/ theories • Learning refining theories and models • Writing/reading about data, theories, models • Giving arguments for/against models and theories

32. ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF CLASSROOM INQUIRY • Learners are engaged by scientific questions • Learners give priority to evidence, to develop & evaluate explanation to address the questions • Learners formulate explanations • Learners evaluate explanations against alternative explanations • Learners communicate and justify explanations. (National Research Council, 2000)

33. Inquiry Issues/Tensions • Kit-based science education • Computer supported science learning • Argumentation - Domain General (TAP) vs Domain Specific (Appeals to …..) • Assessment of/for Learning • Immersion Units - weeks, months, years • Direct vs. Discovery/Inquiry Teaching • Conceptual change teaching • Knowledge in Pieces vs. Coherent Theory • Language gap - data texts • Policy Issue - what science to teach? School Science

34. EMERGING PERSPECTIVES • Design Principles • Student Learning - Design-Based Research Collective, 2003. Ed.Rsch, 32(1). Teacher Learning - Davis & Krajick 2005. Designing Educative Curriculum Materials to Promote Teacher Learning. Ed. Rsch, 34(3). • Design Experiments/ Communities of Learners - Brown & Campione. 1996. Psych. Theory and the design of innovative learning environments. In Schauble & Glaser (Eds.) Innovation in learning: New environments for education. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum • Assessment for Learning - Black & Wiliam Inside the Black Box; Working Inside the Black Box, London: King’s College London, Department of Education and Professional Studies.) • Engineering methods as a model of educational research-What and How it works.

35. AP REDESIGNBIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, PHYSICS • Science Panels Big Ideas / Unifying Themes (9 to 6) Enduring Understandings Evidence Models • Learning Panel • The student can use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems. • The student can use mathematics appropriately • The student can engage in scientific questioning • The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence • The student can work with scientific explanations and theories • The student is able to transfer knowledge across various scales, concepts, and representations in and across domains

36. ASSESSING ACHIEVEMENTTHE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) 1969-1970

37. IDEAS BEHIND NAEP: • Purpose to conduct a census-like survey of knowledge, skills, understandings and attitudes of young Americans • Two main goals: • Make comprehensive data available of the educational attainments of students in certain subject areas • To measure any growth or decline of students which might take place in any certain subject area • Assessments were written based on predetermined objectives for each subject area • Kids age 9, 13, 17, and adults (mid twenties) were assessed

38. OBJECTIVES FOR SCIENCE (69-70) • To know the fundamental facts and principles of science. • Possess the abilities and skills needed to engage in the process of science. • Understand the investigative nature of science. • Have attitudes about, and appreciations of scientists, science, and the consequences of science that stem from adequate understanding.

39. THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS1976 -1977CONTENT PROCESSSCIENCE & SOCIETYBLOOM’S TAXONOMY

40. Questions for the 1976-1977 NAEP science exam were written to fit somewhere in the matrix seen on the right The matrix was developed using a simplified version of Bloom’s taxonomy (across the top) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT MATRIX FOR THE 1976-1977 ASSESSMENT WITH NUMBER OF RELEASED EXERCISES PER AGE IN EACH CELL

42. THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) 1985-1986 Standards Benchmarks

43. Content, Cognition, and Context FRAMEWORK FOR SCIENCE ASSESSMENT

44. THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) 1996 Knowing and Doing

47. THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) 2009 Using

48. SCIENCE PRACTICES: ITEM DISTRIBUTION Note: Percentages refer to student response time

49. GENERATING ITEMS: PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS (EXAMPLE P. 83)