New Vision for Science Education: Inching our Way to National Standards Richard Duschl Penn State University

National Research Council (2000) National Research Council (2005)

Learning Environments

National Research Council (2001) National Research Council (2005)

Assessment for Improving Professional Development and Learning Pathways National Research Council 2003

National Research Council (2006) National Research Council (2005)

THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) 2009 Using

The Opportunity Equation (2009) Higher Levels of math and science for all students Common standards that are fewer, clearer, and higher, coupled with aligned assessments Improved teaching and profession learning, supported by better school and system management New designs for schools and systems to deliver math & science learning more effectively

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

A Call for Learning Progressions and Vertical Pathways Current K-12 curricula and standards  contain too many disconnected topics of equal priority  use declarative “what we know” language -- not clear what it means to understand the topic  Tend to divorce science content from practices  Rarely builds ideas cumulatively and in developmentally informed ways across grades  Not sequenced in ways that account for research on the development of children’s scientific understandings Current K-12 curricula and standards  contain too many disconnected topics of equal priority  use declarative “what we know” language -- not clear what it means to understand the topic  Tend to divorce science content from practices  Rarely builds ideas cumulatively and in developmentally informed ways across grades  Not sequenced in ways that account for research on the development of children’s scientific understandings Duschl et al., 2007 Taking Science to School

4 Strands of Scientific Proficiency Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.

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

Evolution/ Natural Selection Structure-Function Ecology/Interrelationships Laws of Conservation Particulate Theory Of Matter Geologic Processes Constructing explanations Big ideas in Science Energy Force and motion Use of Evidence

RRS Children’s Knowledge Core Domains: Simple Mechanics of Solid Bounded Objects Behaviors of psychological agents Actions and organization of living things Makeup and substance of materials Young children begin school with Rich knowledge of the natural world The ability to reason Understanding of cause & effect Foundations of Modeling The ability to consider ideas and beliefs An eagerness to participate in learning

What are Learning Progressions?  Descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about key disciplinary concepts and practices within and across multiple grades  Structured around big ideas and practices- powerful and generative  Upper anchor- societal expectations of what students should know; based on analysis of discipline  Lower anchor - what students come in with  Describes how learning develops- the intermediate steps towards expertise  Grounded in synthesis of education research and classroom best practices  Descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about key disciplinary concepts and practices within and across multiple grades  Structured around big ideas and practices- powerful and generative  Upper anchor- societal expectations of what students should know; based on analysis of discipline  Lower anchor - what students come in with  Describes how learning develops- the intermediate steps towards expertise  Grounded in synthesis of education research and classroom best practices

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.

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)

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 linked to experiences with phenomena, investigations, and data. Discourse and classroom discussions are key to supporting learning in science.

Theory-Building View of Scientific Inquiry Pattern/ModelExplanation/Theory Measurement/Observation Data Evidence Problem/Question

Epistemic Discourse & Data Texts Data Texts – Selecting/Obtaining Raw Data – Selecting Data for Evidence – Patterns & Models of Evidence – Explanations of Patterns & Models Data Transformations for Epistemic Dialog – T1 - what data count, are worth using – T2 - what patterns & models to use – T3 - what explanations account for patterns & models

Promoting Discourse Processes E-E can support “What counts” type conversations E-E can support inquiry colloquia What counts as good evidence? What counts as a viable pattern or model? What counts as a plausible explanation?

Assessment for Learning  Curriculum  Instruction (Learning)  Assessment  Historically Separate Enterprises  C I A  Learning Sciences Integration  CIA

Project SEPIA - Portfolio Assessment Culture - NSF Designing Lesson Sequences and Learning Environments that support conversations among learners and, in turn, create opportunities for: 1) Making Students’ Thinking Visible 2) Evidence/Explanation Continuum 3) Mediation and Formative Assessments in 3 Domains conceptual “what we need to know”; epistemic “ rules for deciding what counts”; social “communicating and representing ideas, evidence and explanations Duschl, R.A and Gitomer, D. (1997). Strategies and challenges to changing the focus of assessment and instruction in science classrooms. Educational Assessment, 4(1):

There are ten categories in the IUCN Red List. We will be dealing with the three categories in the “Threatened” range, those that imply the greatest needs for action, which are encircled in red. An introduction to the Threat Categories

SEPIA Assessment Conversations  Stage 1 - Receiving Information  Stage 2 - Recognizing Information  Stage 3 - Using Information

AC1 -Receiving Information  Individual or group efforts on specialized tasks that by design bring about among students a diversity of responses and a range of representations and ideas  Teacher and students make explicit and publicly display students’ efforts, representations of meanings and understandings or performances on tasks.

Storyboards Goals Conceptual – What & How we Know Epistemic – What Counts, Why we Believe Social – What to show and challenge

AC2 - Recognizing Information  Teacher examines critically and makes an appraisal of the diversity of students efforts, meaning and understandings, and performances and selects according to criteria and conceptual, epistemic and social goals.  Teachers and students work toward a synthesis of what comes to count or stand as appropriate efforts, meaning and understandings, and performances employing SEPIA criteria

AC3 - Using Information  Applying what has been learning to previous efforts, meaning and understandings, and performances or to the design of an investigation for advancing efforts, meaning and understandings, and performances in the present domain of inquiry.

3 Part Harmony  Conceptual “what we need to know”  Epistemic “rules for deciding what counts”  Social “communicating & representing ideas, evidence and explanations”

Assessments to Capture Performance, Gauge Progress  Embedded - part of daily teaching/activities  Formal/informal observations Ss performance relative to content and epistemic practices.  Benchmark - occur periodically w/in module  Tied to specific epistemic/reasoning practice;e.g., causal/historical explanations  Performance - larger events Ss presented with problem that requires both content and epistemic practices  Use knowledge in generative way, use evidence to support explanations,

The Targets of Assessment: The Nature of Proficiency and Evidence-Centered Design What are the skills and understandings to be assessed? (Domain Model) What are the skills and understandings to be assessed? (Domain Model) What is the evidence that would justify particular inferences about a student? (Student Model) What is the evidence that would justify particular inferences about a student? (Student Model) How could that evidence be generated? (Task Design) How could that evidence be generated? (Task Design) How would the evidence be evaluated? (Scoring) [Gitomer & Duschl, NSSE, 2007 ] How would the evidence be evaluated? (Scoring) [Gitomer & Duschl, NSSE, 2007 ]

Developing Learning Performances (IQWST) Joe Krajcik University of Michigan Content Scientific Learning Practice Performance

Exactly what knowledge do you want students to have and how do you want them to know it? claim space (student model) evidence model task model What task(s) will the students perform to communicate their knowledge? How will you analyze and interpret the evidence? Evidence-Centered Design What will you accept as evidence that a student has the desired knowledge?

Create Learning Performances What are Learning performances? – Learning performances define, in cognitive terms, what it means for learners to “understand” a particular idea – Learning performances define how the knowledge is used in reasoning about questions and phenomena Why Learning Performances – Know or understand is too vague – Performances require learners to use the ideas. Use terms that describe the performance you want students to learn and be able to do. – Identify, Define, Refine, Analyze and Interpret data, Explain, Build, Model, Design … K