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We have developed three GC-units (each spanning 25 hours of instructional time) with high inter-unit coherence that spread across the 7th grade curriculum. This addresses a central obstacle to GC-aligned instruction, the availability of high-quality GC-units that can be coherently sequenced and used across different localities, allowing for future scalability. Professional learning opportunities have been developed and enacted; participating teachers have learned about and experienced GC-aligned instruction, addressing a second obstacle to GC teaching. Finally, the units are being enacted in both US and Israeli middle schools so as to allow us to investigate the possibilities provided by GC-aligned instruction when a third obstacle to GC-aligned instruction, implementation constraints driven by concerns associated with standardized testing, is removed.
Our team, including master teachers, developed three GC-units.
in Year 1. This process involved multiple rounds of review and feedback to inform selection of engaging phenomena and models, alignment with selected design principles. quality and feasibility of the materials, and scientific accuracy.
In Year 2, we conducted a pilot study of the GC units with eighteen teachers, seven in the US and eleven in Israel. This pilot study focused on the feasibility of unit implementation, levels of student engagement, and opportunities for unit improvements. Given the contextual differences between US and Israel, we are using a comparative lens to identify key factors for successful implementation of all materials in both contexts.
Pilot study results have been used as a basis for unit revisions.
A field test is being initiated in Year 3 to measure the promise of the units in promoting student outcomes by studying the classes of field-test teachers. In Year 4, we will repeat the field test with the same teachers.
This will provide information regarding how student learning, unit feasibility and implementation improve as teachers become more experienced enacting the units.
This will provide information regarding how student learning,
unit feasibility and implementation improve as teachers
become more experienced enacting the units.
By the end of the project, we will have a refined framework for GC-oriented instruction; three fully developed and tested GC-units with assessments; and research on student outcomes, feasibility and promise of the intervention.
This website is the result of work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DRL-2201192. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the website are those of the PIs and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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