This poster presentation will present ongoing research on the Science Practices in the Classroom Matrix (SPCM), an analytical tool used for identifying the level of sophistication of scientific practices occurring in classroom lessons and the level of student versus teacher centeredness. The SPCM has been used to analyze video recordings of middle grades teachers who participated in a professional development program on inquiry, the nature of science (NOS), and evolutionary concepts. Pre- and post-tests revealed participant teachers’ knowledge and views of inquiry and NOS. This poster highlights interactions, if any, between implementation of the scientific practices and teacher knowledge and views of inquiry and NOS. Implications for prospective teacher education related to using the SPCM to enhance teacher knowledge and views on the scientific practices will be addressed

Ammons, James F.

Crawford, Barbara A.

Idsardi, Robert C., Jr

Murray, Jaclyn K.

English

Georgia Southern University: Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

Georgia Southern UniversityDigital Commons@Georgia SouthernInterdisciplinary STEM Teaching & LearningConferenceMar 5th, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PMAnalyzing NGSS Scientific Practices in Action.Robert C. Idsardi JrUniversity of Georgia, boidsardi@gmail.comBarbara A. CrawfordUniversity of Georgia, barbarac@uga.eduJaclyn K. MurrayUniversity of Georgia, jakspiel@hotmail.comJames F. AmmonsUniversity of Georgia, ammons.james@gmail.comFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/stemThis event is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences & Events at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted forinclusion in Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. Formore information, please contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu.Recommended CitationIdsardi, Robert C. Jr; Crawford, Barbara A.; Murray, Jaclyn K.; and Ammons, James F., "Analyzing NGSS Scientific Practices inAction." (2015). Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference. 57.https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/stem/2015/2015/57Analyzing NGSS Scientific Practices in ActionRobert C. Idsardi Jr, Barbara A. Crawford, Jaclyn K. Murray, James F. Ammons, Wendell F. RogersAbstractImplications for research and teacher educationPurposeTheoretical FrameworkThis ongoing research involves the Science Practices in the Classroom Matrix (SPCM), an analytical tool used for identifying the level of sophistication of scientific practices occurring in classroom lessons and the level of student versus teacher centeredness. The SPCM was developed through iterative rounds of coding videotaped lessons and confirming and disconfirming components of the Matrix, followed by a process of discussion and consensus building. The SPCM is being used to systematically determine how science teachers enact the scientific practices in their classrooms in meaningful ways. Additionally, implications of the use of the SPCM in prospective science teacher education and practicing teacher professional development will be discussed. ReferencesAcknowledgements• Students rarely have opportunities to engage in the scientific practices in the classroom (Capps & Crawford, 2013).• Teachers engaged in an authentic paleontological field investigation (intensive six day, two summer program). • Classroom lessons were videotaped. • The need arose to systematically analyze the nature of the instruction.The purpose of the Matrix is not to evaluate teachers, but to gain a better understanding of the level of sophistication and level of student-teacher centeredness of inquiry-based instruction. It also allows us to find potential relationships between teachers’ • knowledge and views of inquiry and NOS• knowledge of science content• the nature of teacher instruction• Teaching science as inquiry is engaging students in the practices of science, where learners grapple with data and use evidence to justify explanations to make sense of the natural [and material] world with the expert guidance of a teacher (Crawford, 2014).• Situated cognition is a learning perspective that describes knowledge as a product of the activities, context, and culture in which the learning is situated (Brown et al., 1989).The SPCM has multiple uses. First, the SPCM will be used to differentiate teachers’ enactment of the science practices through the Fossil Finders professional development project. Recordings of their enactment of the Fossil Finders curriculum will be analyzed with the SPCM then compared to teachers’ knowledge and views on inquiry and NOS, both before and after the professional development intervention. Second, the SPCM may offer teacher educators a way to support practicing and prospective teachers in understanding the science practices, bringing research into practice. Prospective teachers may have difficulty differentiating between features of inquiry and student-teacher centeredness (Forbes, 2011). A proposed study is in development to see if an intervention on the scientific practices and use of the SPCM enhances prospective teacher knowledge of the practices and changes prospective teacher’s views of engaging their students in the scientific practices, as shown below.Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. doi:10.3102/0013189X018001032Capps, D. K., & Crawford, B. a. (2013). Inquiry-Based Professional Development: What does it take to support teachers in learning about inquiry and nature of science? International Journal of Science Education, 35(12), 1947–1978. doi:10.1080/09500693.2012.760209Crawford, B. (2014). From Inquiry to Scientific Practices in the Science Classroom. Lederman, N. G., & Abell, S. K. (Eds.). Handbook of Research on Science Education (Vol. 2). Routledge. (pp. 515–542).Forbes, C. T. (2011). Preservice elementary teachers’ adaptation of science curriculum materials for inquiry-based elementary science. Science Education, 95(5), 927–955. doi:10.1002/sce.20444NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Achieve, Inc. on behalf of the twenty-six states and partners that collaborated on the NGSS.We thank The University of Georgia for their support. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF 1249157. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The National Science FoundationNGSS Sciences Practices1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)2. Developing and using models3. Planning and carrying out investigations4. Analyzing and interpreting data5. Using mathematics and computational thinking6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)7. Engaging in argument form evidence8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating informationHow can we systematically analyze the ways in which students in the classroom are engaging in science practices?Can we use the Science Practices in the Classroom Matrix to enhance practicing and prospective teacher knowledge of the scientific practices?Lesson on Scientific practices and using the SPCMAnalyzing video clips of scientific practices in classroomsParticipants use the SPCM to analyze their student teaching2nd Reflection on Student TeachingResearcher interviews participants individuallyReflection on Student TeachingI: What did they find? Can someone tell me what this graph is telling us?S: They have brachiopods and clams here, but I think we see they don’t have any crinoids. They have trilobites. So they are missing some organisms that we have... And then, you can see that these two (taxa) were flourishing because they have relatively about the same number of fossils (students looking at pie graphs).I (Instructor): Alright gentlemen, what’d you guys just do?S1 (Student): Umm, we took the information from these (has raw data sheets in hand)I: And what was that information that you took?S1: All the fossils that we found.S2: And then we had to write down how many fossils we got from each type of organism. (Students are organizing their data into a data table). Scenarios from classrooms participating in Fossil FindersInterpreting Data - a2/b3Analyzing Data - a1/b2Science Practicesa robust more informed emergingabsentbstudent centered(minimally guided)guidedteacher centered(heavily guided)3 2 1 0Planning investigationsaAn investigation is revised in light of new evidenceAn investigation is planned that accounts for variablesAn investigation is planned to generate dataPlanning investigations not present bStudents independently plan investigationTeacher guides student in planning investigationTeacher provides a plan for an investigationCarrying out Investigations aA revised investigation is carried outAn investigation is carried out that accounts for variablesAn investigation is carried out to produce dataCarrying out investigations not present  bStudents independently carry out investigationTeacher guides student in carrying out investigationTeacher carries out investigationAnalyzing dataaLimitations of data analysis are evaluated and data are reanalyzed through an iterative processData analysis is conducted through systematic quantitative (e g  statistics) or qualitative methods to create visual representationsDescriptive analysis of data is conducted or visual representations of data are created Analyzing data not present bStudents independently analyze dataTeacher guides students in analyzing dataTeacher analyzes dataInterpreting dataaLimitations of interpretations are evaluated and data is reinterpreted through an iterative processAnalyzed data (from quantitative or qualitative methods) are compared and contrastedGeneral patterns are recognized in the dataInterpreting data not present bStudents independently interpret dataTeacher guides students in interpreting dataTeacher interprets dataFrom DJ’s Class: From KN’s Class:Teacher DJ KNGrade Level 5th 7th (Earth Science)Teaching Experience 4 years 5 yearsEducation BA Int. Relations, MEd BS Biology, MA in EducationCollege Science Courses2 16# of Professional Development Workshops 2 0Research ExperienceNone YesPre/Post NOS and Inquiry Scores (out of 24)Pre = 12Post = 22Pre = 18Post = 22Table 1. An portion of the SPCM. The full SPCM covers all eight of the NGSS Science Practices Table 2. Background experiences of teachers studied.I: So we are going to be taking measurements for the rest of this investigation.  We’re going to be looking at length and width.  When we get out actual samples, and I’ll show you how to measure these organisms that we have.  We are going to be taking a look at a measurement this way and also a measurement this way.  And when we record those then the database will multiply them together to get a number the database can use.Planning Investigations  –a1/b1I: So you know how we were looking at different bar graphs to compare, now we compare our chart with these ones.  In this sample they found more brachiopods than clams. That sounds a lot like the one over here.  You might be able to draw some interesting comparisons.  We can look at all these different sites…So our data looks a little different than that, but what is nice about this is this is just a small part of this. Put that data in and those numbers will change a little to account for everything that we found.  This is kind of a cool thing to be able to compare to what we found and compare what was found with what other people found.Interpreting Data – a2/b1Overviews of  DJ’s and KN’s classroomsDJ• Carried out science practices mostly at an emerging level• Students mainly guided in science practices• Students engaged with a broad range of science practices in less depthKN• Carried out science practices using a combination of emerging and more informed levels. • Students were guided and worked independently in science practices• Students engaged in few science practices in more depth. 

Analyzing NGSS Scientific Practices in Action.

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Analyzing NGSS Scientific Practices in Action.

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