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Curricula, assessments and teacher professional development programmes wield a powerful influence on teaching and learning enactment. Together with the interpretation of those using them, these products mediate the flow of ideas from research to practice. In most countries, those curricula, assessments and professional development programmes that become widely used are created by educational designers. Given their crucial function, it is surprising that the role of educational designers is rarely recognised in the educational research literature, studied empirically or supported in practice. This article argues that educational research stands to (better) support practice at scale when it is attuned to the needs of educational designers. First, mechanisms for knowledge production and use are discussed, including the linkage role played by educational designers in the educational infrastructure of most countries. Then, the importance of understanding and bolstering the linkage between research findings and the work of designers is discussed. Arguments are given for research to better support those who design for scale, along with sample research questions posed by educational designers. In these, a distinction is made between the knowledge designers crave to shape their products (curricula, assessments, teacher professional development) and the knowledge they need to shape the processes through which those products come to fruition. This article closes with a call for educational researchers to explicitly focus their knowledge creation and dissemination efforts towards research consumers with the largest direct effects on teaching and learning: educational designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Educational robotics programs offer an engaging opportunity to potentially teach core computer science concepts and practices in K–12 classrooms. Here, we test the effects of units with different programming content within a virtual robotics context on both learning gains and motivational changes in middle school (6th–8th grade) robotics classrooms. Significant learning gains were found overall, particularly for groups introduced to content involving program flow, the structural logic of program execution. Relative gains for these groups were particularly high on items that require the transfer of knowledge to dissimilar contexts. Reaching units that included program flow content was also associated with greater maintenance of programming interest when compared with other units. Therefore, our results suggest that explicit instruction in the structural logic of programming may develop deeper transferrable programming knowledge and prevent declines in some motivational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Four principles of cognitive science were used to make systematic revisions in middle school science instructional modules from two kinds of curriculum: one popular textbook series and one popular hands‐on series (two modules each). Schools were randomly assigned to 1 of the 3 arms (cognitive science modifications with professional development, active control with professional development, or business‐as‐usual). Two cohorts of students were followed in each arm for each setting. There were significant benefits of the cognitive science intervention, but the nature of effects varied for the two settings and curricula. For the text‐based curriculum, positive effects of cognitive science modifications were concentrated in classrooms with lower proportions of underrepresented minority students. For the hands‐on curriculum, there were positive effects that were not linked to school composition. Participation in the active control did not significantly improve student learning. Implications for policy and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little consensus on the kinds and amounts of teacher support needed to achieve desired student learning outcomes when mathematics is inserted into science classrooms. When supported by educative curriculum materials (ECM) and heavy investment in professional development (PD), teachers implementing a unit designed around mathematical modeling of scientific mechanisms substantially increased students' ability to make both qualitative and quantitative predictions (Schuchardt & Schunn, 2016). Because of concerns about equitable access to support resources, we investigated whether variations in PD support while retaining ECM could differentially affect two student learning outcomes: Quantitative Predictions and Qualitative Predictions. Two contrasts were performed examining: (1) the effect of reducing PD and (2) whether eliminating PD entirely caused further harm to student learning. Reducing and eliminating PD had no significant effect on student gains in Qualitative Predictions, suggesting ECM can be sufficient for teachers to support student learning of conceptual science content. However, student gains in Quantitative Predictions decreased significantly upon reducing PD; eliminating PD did not cause significant additional decreases. Combined, these findings suggest that amount of face-to face PD support necessary to achieve student-learning gains can vary depending on whether the practice requires application of qualitative science content or quantitative reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We explored whether existing curricula can be adapted to increase students' skills at comprehending and learning from diagrams using an intervention delivered by regular middle-school teachers in intact classrooms. Ninety-two teachers in three states implemented our modified materials over six curricular units from two publishers: Holt (a reading-focused curriculum) and Full Option Science System ( FOSS) (an inquiry-focused curriculum). Results were compared between two interventions-one based on selected principles of cognitive science (cognitive-science-based) that included instruction in diagram comprehension and one providing professional development in science content only (content-only)-and a business-as-usual control. We analyze posttest items involving different degrees of reliance on diagrams to show how instruction in diagram comprehension can improve comprehension of diagrams during reasoning. At the classroom level, there were significant advantages of the cognitive-science-based intervention over both content-only and business-as-usual with large effect sizes in all FOSS units ( d = 0.41-0.52), but only one Holt unit ( d = 0.11). Analyses by type of diagram suggested these effects were largest for transfer to diagrams from an uninstructed domain. Further analyses of high-stakes state test scores available for the participants implementing the Holt units showed improved use of diagrams ( d = 0.45-0.66). Results suggest that making sense of visualizations (diagrams) is not effortless and self-evident, but that students who receive supports for comprehending can improve their comprehension, and the learning can transfer to new domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this research was an evaluation of the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student achievement during implementation of a reform curriculum. The PD consisted of five four-hour workshop sessions distributed over the time teachers were implementing the reform curriculum in their classrooms. The research was conducted in a mid-size, urban school district over the span of two years. Three groups of teachers were contrasted: teachers who continued to use the established curriculum (N = 5), teachers who implemented the reform curriculum without participating in the PD sessions (N = 5), and teachers who implemented the reform curriculum while participating in the PD sessions (N = 13). Teachers who participated in the PD had approximately a one standard deviation advantage in their students' achievement over those who did not. We collected evidence of particular features of the PD that explained the differences in student achievement. The features included: distributing the workshops throughout the implementation; engaging teachers in an active learning process situated in the curriculum; and facilitating a collaborative community of teacher professionals. This study led us to believe that not only are the individual features of the PD important, but the combination of all three together is particularly powerful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a rigorous summer research experience and curriculum development opportunity for teachers, supported by professional development and classroom support, culminating with a citywide student design competition. The goal of this Research Experience for Teachers program was to bring real world innovative design into several urban, high school classrooms. The 8-week summer program comprised an engineering component and a learning science component. The goal of the engineering component was to provide an authentic research experience. Teams of 2-3 teachers were paired with a researcher in a school of engineering to further ongoing research of a product realization project. The goal of the learning science component was to scaffold teachers to develop a design-based immersion unit that they would implement in their science classrooms. Teams were organized by their content areas and provided professional development at a learning research center around relevant curriculum development strategies. This paper presents results related to common sets of knowledge and skills that teachers learned from both engineering design and learning science from the cohorts of teachers over the last three years. Findings include documentation of implementation success, changes of teachers' and students' beliefs about engineering and increases in student interest in engineering careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday lives. This provides a meaningful context in which students could reason scientifically. Eighth grade students from two urban schools participated in the unit. Both schools contained large percentages of racial/ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students. Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement on a paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice pre and post assessment. The results compare favorably with both a high-quality inquiry science unit and a traditional textbook curriculum. Implications for the use of design-based curricula as a viable alternative for teaching science reasoning in high-needs, urban settings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across disciplines and educational levels, peer feedback has emerged as a broadly useful pedagogical strategy. However, the value of peer feedback depends upon students being willing to provide each other substantial feedback. We develop a novel application of game theory to study whether students' experiences with interaction inequality in peer feedback predict lower participation in future peer feedback assignments. Two kinds of inequality are explored: inequality in amount and inequality in the helpfulness of received vs. providing feedback. We examine data from students (N = 732) enrolled in the three different courses (varying in discipline and level) using the same online peer review platform. We use advanced multiple regression models to test four theoretically-derived hypotheses regarding the overall effects of experienced inequality, three hypotheses involving contextual moderators of that effect. The results confirmed the hypothesized relationship of experiencing inequality in the number and quality of feedback provided vs. received with the subsequent depth of participation in peer reviewing. The results also generally confirmed the three predicted moderators of the relationship: stronger observed relationships with inequality experiences for weaker students, in later assignments, and in more advanced coursework. This study is unique in applying and extending game theory to computerized peer review and in its approach for studying the relationship of specific prior experiences with future peer review participation. The findings provide new practical insights into what is essential to manage in peer review processes. • Novel application of Game Theory to study peer reviewing behaviors. • Experienced inequality is associated with lower peer feedback participation. • Inequality moderated by task performance, course level, and amount of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infusing engineering design projects in K-12 settings can promote interest and attract a wide range of students to engineering careers. However, the current climate of high-stakes testing and accountability to standards leaves little room to incorporate engineering design into K-12 classrooms. We argue that design-based learning, the combination of scientific inquiry and engineering design, is an approach that can be used to meet both K-12 educators’ and engineering advocates’ goals. This paper describes an 8-week high school curriculum unit, the Heating/Cooling System, in which engineering design is used to teach students central and difficult chemistry concepts such as atomic interactions, reactions, and energy changes in reactions. The goals of the paper are to (1) describe this successful design-based unit, (2) provide guidelines for incorporating design-based learning into other science topics, and (3) provide some evidence of its value for teaching difficult chemistry concepts and increasing interest in engineering careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]