Organization: Horizon Research, Inc., Education Development Center, Wested
Funding agency: National Science Foundation
Program: Math and Science Partnerships
HRI Role: Research
Project Description
Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Knowledge Management and Dissemination (KMD) was funded as an MSP Research, Evaluation, and Technical Assistance project to support knowledge management within the MSP program and to disseminate information to the broader mathematics and science education community. A partnership of Horizon Research, Inc., the Education Development Center, and Wested, the overall goal of the MSP-KMD project was to synthesize findings in the K–12 arena in a small number of important areas, articulating the contribution of the MSP program to the knowledge base and identifying “gaps” and promising practices/strategies for further investigation. In this way, MSPs and the field at large can benefit from MSPs’ research and development efforts.
The work of the MSP-KMD project, from its inception, was framed by a three-stage knowledge management model, created by Nevis, DiBella and Gould (1995) for workplace settings. The model posits that learning occurs in three identifiable stages: (1) knowledge acquisition, (2) knowledge sharing, and (3) knowledge utilization. The KMD project focused the majority of its knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing efforts in two primary drill down areas: Deepening Teacher Content Knowledge (TCK) and Teachers as Intellectual Leaders (TL). In later years of the project, MSP-KMD expanded the TCK drill down to focus on what is known about the involvement of STEM faculty in deepening teacher/teacher leader content knowledge and on STEM professional learning communities (STEM PLCs). In addition, the MSP-KMD project explored the research on Supporting Beginning Teachers. The PIs and co-PIs were Iris R. Weiss, Joan D. Pasley, Barbara Miller.
Project Link: http://www.horizon-research.com/mspkmd/
Research Purpose
The MSP-KMD project collected and combined what has been learned from different sources to identify what we know; how well we know it; and the implications for policy, practice, and future research. The process was two-fold: (1) a search of the research literature followed by a careful review of studies to identify the extent of support for various findings; and (2) a series of on-line queries of experienced practitioners to capture practice-based insights. The resulting syntheses of empirical research findings and practice-based insights represent the field’s knowledge base in a particular area.