AIM

Reports are available in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don’t already have Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe’s Website.

2014 NARST paper – New Instruments for Studying the Impacts of Science PD (PDF, 425KB)
This paper describes the development of a set of learning-theory aligned instruments including: coupled teacher and student content assessments that measure conceptual understanding in each of four topics at two different grade levels (upper elementary and middle school); a survey of teacher beliefs about effective science instruction; and a classroom observation protocol. These instruments have been used in a number of research and evaluation projects to study professional development and its impact on teacher content knowledge, beliefs, classroom practices, and/or student achievement.

2013 NARST paper – Instructional Materials to Support NGSS (PDF, 193KB)
This paper presents the findings from a study of an educative curriculum materials-based intervention that has three central design principles: 1) the materials are aligned with current knowledge about how people learn; 2) the educative components support teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge, and facilitate instructional implementation; and 3) the instructional activities use low-cost, readily available materials amenable to large-scale implementation. Implications for supporting implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards are discussed.