April 2007 Making the Most of Education Research EDC staff participate in national conference Several EDC staff members will take part in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting held in Chicago from Monday April 9 to Friday April 13. AERA aims to improve the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the application of research results. Learn more about AERA on their Web site: http://www.aera.net/ 21st-Century Literacy: A Symposium in Honor of Michael Pressley The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: This presentation describes the development of a Web site to promote teaching and learning of digital literacy in the classroom. Naomi Hupert, Center for Children and Technology Ubiquitous technologies for learning is a relatively new field, and the unique nature of the tools themselves has opened up new possibilities for research in educational technology. It is important that we begin to systematically explore those possibilities now in anticipation of burgeoning use of ubiquitous computing in classrooms everywhere. This symposium will focus on a book entitled, Ubiquitous Computing in Education: Invisible Technology, Visible Impact, edited by Mark van ‘t Hooft and Karen Swan, researchers at Kent State University’s Research Center for Educational Technology. Learn more about Ubiquitous Computing in Education: Invisible Technology, Visible Impact Professional Development: Lesson Study and Teacher Learning Erica Jablonski and Daphne D. Minner, Center for Science Education TERC and EDC are conducting a three-year study of the extent to which special and science educators engaged in lesson study increase their knowledge of science, learning disabilities and curricular accommodations, and apply new knowledge to improve teaching practice in inclusive middle school science classrooms. Participants are 36 special and 59 science educators in 19 teams at 18 urban/suburban schools. Teams are randomly assigned to intervention or wait-list comparison groups. The intervention consists of a facilitated, introductory lesson study cycle followed by two school-based cycles. Our mixed-method design is longitudinal and hierarchical, using data from surveys, teacher assessments, observation and interviews. We will present initial findings regarding the influence of the intervention on teacher collaboration, knowledge and classroom practice. Multicultural and Inclusive Mathematics and Science Education: Toward Pedagogies of Equity and Engagement The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Babette Moeller, Center for Children and Technology In today’s world of high standards for all elementary students in mathematics, there is an urgent need for teachers to be highly knowledgeable about the strengths and needs of their students, comfortable with their own integration of inclusion practices in the classroom, and committed to continuing their knowledge-building in this area. This research describes the third year results of an NSF funded project which uses multimedia case studies, a neuro-developmental framework, key standards-based math concepts, and collaborative lesson development in a professional development approach. The findings of the pilot studies have important implications for those interested promoting a deeper understanding of inclusion students and professional development approaches for teaching inclusion students in the area of mathematics. Ellen B. Mandinach, Center for Children and Technology This paper sessions examines one-to-one computing intiatives. Technology Research: Issues in Teacher Practices and Professional Development With Technology Ellen B. Mandinach, Center for Children and Technology Barbara Scott-Nelson, Division of Mathematics Learning and Teaching K-8 mathematics coaches or teacher leaders are placed in schools to construct leadership roles and to provide professional development addressing mathematical content, pedagogy, and curriculum. Theoretically, these leaders support collective collaborative professional development, providing knowledgeable “critical collegiality” (Lord, 1994). But, is this approach to reform and teacher change viable? How does a classroom teacher transition to this role? How do these individuals spend their professional day? What is their intended leadership role? What challenges do they face? How do administrators utilize them? What effect do they have on teachers and on students? This symposium presents three studies utilizing differing perspectives of school-based mathematics leaders within diverse school districts as well as differing methodologies for investigating aspects of these questions. Lauren B. Goldenberg, Center for Children and Technology This paper session examines technology as an agent of change in teaching and learning. Investigations of Instructional, Assessment, and Professional Practices in Literacy The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Naomi Hupert, Center for Children and Technology Exploring Teachers' Epistemological Systems Critical thinking has been shown to have many overall benefits for children, but teachers often have a difficult time supporting critical thinking in the classroom. This project aims to further understand how teachers perceive and implement critical thinking in the classroom after completing a workshop that trains teachers to use web-based technology designed to foster students’ higher-order thinking. Results show that the teachers in the study were able to create curricular units that incorporated critical thinking skills. However, they were not all able to enact the components related to critical thinking in the classroom. This was reflected in weekly activity logs, interviews, and in student artifacts that were assessed. Implications for professional development and teaching critical thinking are discussed. Learning Environments for Different Domains and Learners: Instruction and Assessment in Science, Music, and History The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Evaluating Staff and Developing Professional Learning Communities in Our Schools Merav Dechaume and Wendy B. Martin, Center for Children and Technology Science Education - General Poster Session Ellen B. Mandinach, Center for Children and Technology Ilene Kantrov, Center for Educational Resources and Outreach In this interactive symposium we will present and discuss recent empirical work on mathematics teacher professional development that engage teachers in the analysis of student work. The session brings together three teams of professional development specialists and researchers that share a perspective on teacher learning but utilize a variety of different types of records of practice from different contexts to engage mathematics teachers in analyses of student learning. The presenters, the audience, and the discussant will have opportunities to reflect on the quality and utility of the different lines of inquiry. The discussant will synthesize findings, relate them to the existing knowledge base, provide suggestions for the practice of mathematics teacher professional development, and propose questions for future research. The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Lynn T. Goldsmith, Center for Educational Resources and Outreach The Turning to the Evidence project focuses on articulating the kinds of learning that work with classroom artifacts afford teachers, and also the kinds of issues that arise in helping teachers to use artifacts effectively. The project investigates these issues in the context of two commercially available professional development programs for middle and high school teachers, Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit and Learning and Teaching Linear Functions: Video Cases for Mathematics Professional Development. Both programs center professional development (PD) activities around analysis, discussion, and reflection on classroom records and artifacts. We will report findings about how teachers use/analysis of artifacts developed over the course of the professional development, how teachers’ attention to students’ mathematical thinking developed, how their own “mathematical content knowledge for teaching” was affected, and how teachers sought to integrate their PD work into their classroom practice. This presentation will provide a framing for the kinds of issues that teachers can address when working with classroom artifacts in PD. We will also present a framework we have developed for highlighting characteristics of strategic use of classroom artifacts in PD. Read an article about this work in EDC's Mosaic Amy R. Brodesky and Fred Gross, Center for Online Professional Education Read a feature article about this work Babette Moeller, Center for Children and Technology Utilizing the case method, and building on the lesson study approach the Math for All Project is developing case-based materials to support teacher educators in their efforts to better prepare teachers for providing students with disabilities with standards-based mathematics education. The professional development resources we are creating consist of video-taped mathematics lessons from elementary classrooms that include students with various disabilities, resources related to the lessons, as well as learning experiences to support teacher educators in their use of the case materials. Each case lesson highlights the experiences of individual students with a range of abilities and disabilities. Among other things, the learning experiences that embed the case materials engage general and special teachers to collaboratively inquire into and reflect on the strengths and needs of individual children. The objective for this presentation is to report emerging findings about how the case-based professional development contributes to teachers’ understanding of students’ strengths and needs. We will conclude with a discussion of how this research has helped us refine the design of the case materials and their use for professional development, as well as the questions it raises for further studies. Mathematics Teachers' On-the-Job Learning: Perspectives on Theory and Evidence The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Lynn T. Goldsmith, Center for Educational Resources and Outreach The Turning to the Evidence project was developed to examine what teachers learn from “practice-based” professional development (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Smith, 200x) centered on the use of classroom artifacts. We studied teachers participating in one of four professional development seminars and used a mixed method design that included pre- and post-program administration of paper and pencil measures and also analysis of ethnographic notes and video of seminar sessions and teachers’ classroom instruction. Inclusion and Accommodation in Large-Scale Assessment - SIG Business Meeting and Panel Discussion The following EDC staff are presenting during this session: Caroline E Parker, Education, Employment, and Community Programs Reaching Students in the Gap, a U.S. Department of Education funded project to increase understanding of the gaps in large-scale assessment systems, conducted research in four New England states to address the following: - What are characteristics of students not served well by large-scale assessments? How can these students be identified within a large-scale system? What kind of assessment strategies could be employed to serve them better? While the project’s research began before the release of proposed federal guidelines for special assessment allowances for 2 percent of the population, the studies address critical issues facing policymakers, including how to identify students Visit the Web site of this project Emerging Frameworks and Applications of Mixed Methods Research Read an article about this work in EDC's Mosaic
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