Abstracts for 2-08-2009 CRESS Collaborative Grant Projects
Making “hands-on” science “minds-on” science: creating connections between classrooms, farms and habitats
The Student Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) program currently provides participating Sacramento Valley high-school science classes with hands-on experience restoring habitat on local working farms and ranches.
Currently, the ecological concepts emphasized by SLEWS are not consistently linked directly to curriculum activities in the classroom. Recent assessment of student learning suggests that the field-based activities alone are not sufficient to provide SLEWS students with deep understanding of the science behind the hands-on restoration work.
This project proposes a collaboration between three high school science teachers, SLEWS coordinators and UCD researchers in order to (1) revise an existing collection of ecological curriculum activities so that their connection to SLEWS concepts is clear; (2) implement the curriculum in three Central Valley high-school science classes, refining activities as necessary; (3) measure student understanding of science concepts via high-quality writing prompts given before and after each field day; and (4) measure student engagement by observing behavior during formal classroom activities and during field days.
The project collaborators hope to learn how the integration of formal in-class instruction, coupled with hands-on participation in SLEWS field days, contributes to student understanding of ecological concepts and engagement in the learning process.
The Development of Pedagogical Content Knowledge through a Lesson Study Focused on Writing Instruction
The current focus on closing the achievement gap has narrowed in on ways teachers can develop and use culturally relevant pedagogy to promote equity and access to curriculum. Empirical research has shown that inquiry, reflection, and collaboration in a deep, complex structure, have proven to contribute to the knowledge base of teachers. Few studies have shown how pre-service teachers, early career, and veteran teachers in K-12 classrooms develop pedagogical content knowledge in writing instruction.
Lesson study has been used in Japan for over one hundred years to provide professional development for novice as well as experienced teachers. Through collaboration in planning a research lesson, observing a teacher delivering the lesson, debriefing and revision of the lesson, a small group of participants conduct in-depth investigations of teaching and learning. This process adds depth to what many credential programs are investigating with teacher research or inquiry projects.
The value of lesson study is in its collaborative inquiry and reflective debriefing structure. Thus, teachers are members of inquiry communities in the roles of teachers and researchers, taking meta-cognitive snapshots of their own learning and practice. This proposal suggests a year-long study in which pre-service, first year MA, MA English, and A3WP teacher consultants engage in a lesson study focused on equity and writing instruction.
The proposed research is centered on the following questions: How does a lesson study, focused on writing instruction and social justice, affect the formation of teachers’ culturally relevant, pedagogical content knowledge? How do teachers develop pedagogical content knowledge when engaged in a lesson study focused on equity and writing instruction? What pedagogical content knowledge do they develop? And, how did the lesson study protocol influence the development of this knowledge?
Stories of Sustainability
This proposal will tell “stories of sustainability” for five Healthy Start sites scattered across the state. Local K-12 staff from each site will collaborate with a “home team” of researchers to produce videotapes that address how successfully sustained sites have ensured a long-term commitment of resources and maintained an effectively functioning constituency group.
Through joint analysis, locally situated staff and the “home team triad” (UC Davis School of Education professor, California Department of Education Healthy Start program consultant, and state expert on Healthy Start operations) will analyze the videotapes to select short segments that exemplify particular topics of interest. These segments will be posted on the Healthy Start Field Office’s website to generate ideas on sustainability among the current Healthy Start grantees and other K-12 practitioners. The complete set of videotapes will be made available for further analysis in subsequent research projects.
Teacher Development: Curriculum and Instruction Support
The aim of this research proposal is to investigate the effects of a year-long program of additional curriculum and instruction support after the SNAP 2008 Summer Institute, Pathways to Understanding the Arts Disciplines, for K- 8 generalist teachers.Professional development providers, such as the California Subject Matter Projects, are engaged in on-going research to provide the most effective professional development programs for teachers. Through this project’s activities researchers will explore what current research in the field has suggested: 1) that long-term professional development is the most effective approach toward strengthening the teachers’ application of knowledge and skills and 2) that the process of leadership is built through the collegial exchange of ideas and teacher development that has a direct impact on the quality of classroom instruction (Stigler, 1999).
A focus of the study is the effect of the project’s activities on teachers’ confidence and comfort level with teaching the arts. Researchers will also explore how the development of more classroom strategies for arts implementation will affect teacher isolation and collaboration between teacher/teacher and teacher/student within the school, and if creating/nurturing a community of teachers to support each other in teaching the arts transfers into the classroom.