Developing a Model of Teacher Learning To Support Classroom Enactment of Purposeful Sensemaking

The proposed project investigates teacher learning in the context of enactment of instructional materials aligned to the three dimensions of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). By studying two cohorts of 20 teachers over a two-year timespan during with they learn about NGSS and teach with specific instructional materials, our goal is to develop a model for understanding how enactment is influenced by and in turn influences underlying conceptions of science teaching. The project explores the variations that occur in teachers’ attempted enactments of the science teaching targeted in the Framework and NGSS, and examines how these variations arise from differences in teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices and how they coordinate those ideas during enactment in specific contexts. The project aims to first understand how enactment and underlying knowledge structures interact in specific ways by developing a model of teacher “learning while doing.” The project will identify the shifts in knowledge, beliefs and practices that teachers need to make to support these new approaches to learning, and translate both the general model and the specific shifts in a translation plan that integrates professional learning with instructional material support