Our Research

Abstract: In order to design professional learning that supports rural science teachers to effectively implement standards-based “five-dimensional” (5D) instructional and assessment practices, a critical first step is to elicit their perspectives, prior experiences, concerns, and interests. Based on survey data from 87 rural science teachers in Colorado, along with focus group sessions with 18 of those teachers, this article investigates teachers’ perspectives on what makes rural science teaching unique, the degree to which they use 5D science instruction, their curricular and assessment resources, and their professional learning experiences and preferences. Overall, rural science teachers in Colorado reported using rich practices for engaging students’ interests and identities in the pursuit of high-quality engagement, and they expressed a need for more science-specific professional learning and materials distribution. Implications for designing professional learning opportunities for rural science teachers are offered.

Citation: Wingert, K., Jacobs, J., Lindsay, W., Lo, A. S., Herrmann-Abell, C. F., & Penuel, W. R. (2022). Understanding the Priorities and Practices of Rural Science Teachers: Implications for Designing Professional Learning. The Rural Educator, 43(3), 26-40. https://doi.org/10.55533/2643-9662.1338 

Abstract: A key goal of science education articulated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education is to create opportunities for students to answer questions about the world that connect to their interests, experiences, and identities. Interest can be seen as a malleable relationship between a person and object (such a phenomenon students might study). In this paper, we analyzed data from a design study of an online course focused on preparing 11 secondary teachers to design three-dimensional tasks that align to the Next Generation Science Standards and that connect to students’ interests. Our data sources were teachers’ descriptions of their design decisions about what phenomena to use to anchor assessment, designed assessment tasks, and interviews with them about those decisions. We found that interest was an important consideration for assessment design, but teachers considered student interests in different ways. Some teachers shifted their views of what it meant to engage student interests in the context of assessment design over the course of their participation in professional learning. Most teachers made decisions about what they believed their students were interested in based on their knowledge of students or beliefs about their students’ interests. In supporting teachers to design summative assessments that link to students’ interest, it is critical to assume teachers bring a range of conceptions of interest and to consider the feasibility and utility of task design tools from teachers’ point of view.

Citation: Penuel, W. R., O’Connor, K., Allen, A. R., Jacobs, J. K., & Lo, A. S. (2024). Examining Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Student Interest as a Consideration in Designing Assessments. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2024.2435747

Abstract: This design research investigates the role of professional development in assessment as a catalyst for promoting equitable teaching and learning practices. Through two design studies, the focus was on exploring teachers' selection of relevant phenomena to anchor assessments and their evolving choices over time. Each study included two conditions: one in which teachers experienced a workshop, and one where they were given tools to support assessment design to use on their own.  Data collection included pre- and post-workshop teacher-designed assessments, along with interviews. Analysis revealed growth in the use of scenarios to assess three-dimensional understanding, particularly among teachers who participated in the workshop series. However, challenges persisted regarding the clarity of student stakes and agency, emphasizing the importance of addressing students' perspectives and making phenomena relevant to their interests and identities. The study underscores the necessity for comprehensive support for teachers in shifting assessment practices towards more equitable and meaningful scenario development to motivate students' integrated use of the three dimensions in assessments.

Citation: Lo, A. S., Penuel, W. R., & Wingert, K. (2022). Supporting Teachers in Designing Assessments Aligned to the Vision of the Framework: Findings from Two Design Studies [Conference Paper]. 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Abstract: This paper examines an online professional learning intervention to develop teachers’ pedagogical design capacity to develop five-dimensional (5D) learning and assessment opportunities, which involve integrated use of science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts in science to make sense of phenomena and problems that are interesting to students and support students as knowers, doers, and users of science. We present findings from our design study, which suggest both the promise of such an approach and some of the challenges and tensions experienced by teachers as they chose and use phenomena to support 5D learning opportunities for students.

Citation: Lo, A. S., Glidewell, L., O’Connor, K., Allen, A., Herrmann-Abell, C. F., Penuel, W. R., Wingert, K., & Lindsay, W. (2022). Promoting shifts in teachers’ understanding and use of phenomena in instruction and assessment. In C. Chinn, E. Tan, & Y. Kali (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2022 (pp. 1145-1148). International Society of the Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.22318/icls2022.1145

Abstract: This related paper set explores different facets of rural science teacher learning in the context of a professional learning program focused on preparing teachers to design 5D assessment tasks. This “five-dimensional” vision for teaching and learning involves students using the three dimensions (DCIs, SEPs, CCCs) to make sense of phenomena and problems and support the development of their interests and practice-linked identities. Paper 1 describes how the design and adaptation of the course used findings from the initial design study data to better support rural science teachers’ needs and strengths. Paper 2 explores how rural teachers used surveys of students to choose phenomena that reflect students’ interests and that could help them see how science is relevant to their lives and communities. Paper 3 presents preliminary findings from the experimental study that highlight how the changes implemented between the design study and the experiment impacted the extent to which the five dimensions were reflected in the tasks rural teachers designed after the conclusion of the course. Finally, Paper 4 presents a comparative case study highlighting how variation in teacher backgrounds, rural contexts, and instructional priorities help account for differences in shifts in their vision for science teaching.

Related Paper Set Citation: Lo, A. S., Glidewell, L., Herrmann Abell, C., O’Connor, K., Allen, A.-R., Cooper, S. L., Jacobs, J., Cherbow, K., Penuel, W. R., Wingert, K., & Gardner, A. (2024, March 18). Building from Strengths and Attending to Context: Supporting Rural Science Teachers’ Learning [Related Paper Set]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO

Individual Paper Citations

Lo, A. S.*, Cooper, S. L., Herrmann-Abell, C. F., Cherbow, K., & Allen, A. (2024, March 18). Lessons Learned from Designing 5D Professional Learning for Rural Science Teachers [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO.

O’Connor, K., Allen, A.-R., & Penuel, W. R.* (2024, March 18). Examining Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Student Interest as a Consideration in Designing Assessments [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO. 

Herrmann-Abell, C. F.*, Lo, A. S., Cherbow, K., Cooper, S. L., Gardner, A., & O’Connor, K. (2024, March 18). Investigating the Impact of a 5D Professional Learning Course on Rural Teachers’ Assessment Practices [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO.

Glidewell, L.*, Jacobs, J., Allen, A.-R., & Wingert, K. (2024, March 18). A Comparative Case Analysis of Rural Teachers’ Experience with 5D Professional Learning [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO.

Abstract: This paper addresses the need for a shift in assessment practices within science education to promote diverse sensemaking. In line with the vision of the NRC (2012)'s A Framework for K-12 Science Education, this study aims to establish a more coherent system of teaching, learning, and assessment that aligns with equitable opportunities for all learners. The paper emphasizes the importance of not only aligning assessments with the three dimensions of the standards, but also taking into account learners' interests and identities to create meaningful, engaging, and relevant assessment opportunities.The study focuses on the critical aspect of selecting meaningful phenomena to drive sensemaking. The intervention was a three-month, online professional learning course designed to enhance teachers' professional design capacity. The research examines the assessments developed by 22 secondary science teachers who participated in the course in the fall of 2022. Applying Suárez and Bell's (2019) framework, the paper categorizes the selected phenomena of teachers’ pre-, post-, and in-course assessment design. The majority of phenomena selected that fit these defined categories were “everyday” phenomena and the least represented class of phenomena was contemporary scientific. While the majority of teachers selected phenomena falling within the natural/cultural framework, 48% (n= 29) of the phenomena selected did not.

Citation: Cooper, S. L., & Lo, A. S. (2024, March 17). Supporting Teachers in the Selection of Meaningful Phenomena for Assessment Design [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO.

Abstract: This paper focuses on a professional development program designed to support rural secondary science teachers to design tasks to assess student learning that reflect the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Our approach is grounded in the idea that designing tasks provides a powerful context for learning, but that teachers’ own prior knowledge, experiences, and identities will shape what they learn, as do the social and material resources that they have available to them. Interviews and assessment tasks collected from teachers in both a design study and experiment served as data to account for variation in who learned what and why in the program. While we found that overall, the quality of teachers’ assessments shifted over time, the results for the experiment were better than for the design study, partly owing to shifts made in tools and coaching and feedback provided in the experiment. A persistent challenge was choosing and problematizing phenomena for assessment. Our sequence of studies shows the potential—as well as intensive labor—associated with iterative design of tools to support teachers in designing assessments aligned with the vision of the Framework.

Citation: Penuel, W. R., & Lo, A. S. (2024, March 19). Preparing Rural Teachers to Design Framework-Aligned Assessment Tasks: Variations in Who Learns and Why [Conference Paper]. NARST 2024 Annual International Conference, Denver, CO.

Abstract: While one in five students attend a rural school, rural science educators do not have access to the same professional learning (PL) opportunities as their suburban and urban counterparts (Avery & Kassam, 2011; Banilower et al., 2018). Supporting the needs of rural science teachers requires a broader understanding of the diversity that exists in rural communities (Azano et al., 2019; Hartman et al., 2022) and the significant cultural wealth that can be leveraged in rural contexts (Crumb et al., 2023). Using Wingert et al (2022)’s rapid ethnography of rural science teachers’ needs and Crumb et al (2023)’s rural cultural wealth framework, our team designed an online PL program to develop rural teachers’ capacity to design assessments that are aligned with A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012). We argue that the Framework vision for teaching and learning includes two additional implicit dimensions, student interest and identity, to which teachers should attend to ensure that students develop and demonstrate their understanding in ways that engage student interest and support their identity development as knowers, doers, and users of science (Bell et al., 2016). In this session, we will share how we used information about our rural science teachers’ context to inform the PL design, rural teachers’ experience in the PL, and the PL’s impact on rural science teachers’ assessment practices. This work will highlight the importance of attending to variation in teachers’ contexts and experiences and how intensive, online professional learning for assessment can contribute to developing an expansive vision for science learning and repertoire for task design.

Citation: Lo, A. S., Glidewell, L., Penuel, W. R., & Herrmann Abell, C. F. (2024, Sept 19). Leveraging the diversity of rural science teachers’ contexts to inform the design of assessment professional learning [Conference Paper]. National Council on Measurement in Education: 2024 Classroom Assessment Conference, Chicago, IL.