Transcript PowerPoint Presentation Part II

Science Achievement and
Student Diversity
Okhee Lee
School of Education
University of Miami
National Science Foundation (Grant No. REC-0089231)
Purpose
• During the 2000-2004 school years, we implemented
an instructional intervention aimed at promoting both
science and literacy achievement among culturally and
linguistically diverse elementary students.
• We examined the impact of the intervention’s threeyear implementation on science achievement of 3rd,
4th, and 5th grade students during the 2001 through
2004 school years.
Research Questions
1. How did students perform overall in science?
2. How did the performance differ (i.e., achievement
gaps) among demographic subgroups in terms of
ethnicity, home language, English language
proficiency, socioeconomic status, exceptional
student education, and gender?
3. How did students’ performance on NAEP/TIMSS
items compare with the performance of national
and international samples of students?
Conceptual Frameworks:
Instructional Congruence
Teacher-Explicit to Student-Exploratory
Continuum
• This notion takes into account students’ cultural
backgrounds as well as previous science experiences.
• Along the continuum, teachers should consciously
maintain a balance between teacher guidance and
student initiative.
• Teachers move progressively from more explicit to
more student-centered instruction, gradually reducing
assistance while encouraging students to take the
initiative, explore on their own, and assume
responsibility for their own learning.
Research Setting
School
% Ethnicity
% LEP
% Low SES
A
41 Haitian
28 African-American
25 Hispanic
46
95
B
37 Haitian
53 African-American
22
99
C
94 Hispanic
45
81
D
89 Hispanic
15
50
E
55% White
25% Hispanic
16% African-American
4
20
F
32% White
33% Hispanic
34% Black
3
21
Teachers and Students
Teachers
2001 – 2002
2002 – 2003
Grade 3
Teacher Cohort 1
22 teachers
(out of 28 teachers)
647 students
Teacher Cohort 1
22 teachers
(out of 27 teachers)
547 students
Grade 4
Teacher Cohort 2
22 teachers
(out of 25 teachers)
626 students
Teacher Cohort 2
22 teachers
(out of 26 teachers)
688 students
Grade 5
Teacher Cohort 3
12 teachers
(out of 23 teachers)
385 students
2003 – 2004
Teacher Cohort 3
12 teachers
(out of 20 teachers)
431 students
Instructional Intervention:
Instructional Units
• Grade 3: Measurement, States of Matter
• Grade 4: Water Cycle, Weather
• Grade 5: Ecosystems, Earth/Space Science
Teacher Workshops
• Teachers attended four full-day workshops on regular school
days over the course of each year (a total of eight days over the
two-year period).
• The workshops focused on how to implement the instructional
units in classroom practices.
• During the first year, the emphasis was on presenting key issues
in the three domains of the intervention, so that teachers would
become aware of the issues and reflect on their beliefs and
practices (more conceptually oriented).
• The second-year workshops started with reporting students’
assessment results from the previous year and soliciting
teachers’ feedback. Then, the workshops engaged teachers to
share their experiences of teaching the instructional units and
reassess their beliefs and practices (more practice oriented).
Classroom Instruction
• Classroom science instruction took place on
average two hours a week.
• Teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices
varied among science, English language and
literacy, and students’ home language and
culture.
Results
• Overall Achievement Gains: Significance tests of
mean scores between pre- and posttests each year
indicated statistically significant increases on all
measures of science at all three grade levels across all
three years.
• Achievement Gaps: Gaps tended to narrow among
fourth grade students and tended to remain consistent
among third and fifth grade students.
• Comparison with NAEP/TIMSS Samples: Itemby-item comparisons with NAEP and TIMSS samples
indicated overall positive performance by students
who participated in the research at the end of each
school year.
Overall Achievement Gains
Group
Domain
Year
Pre
Post
z
Cohen’s d
(effect size)
dª
(magnitude)
Grade 3:
Teacher
Cohort 1
Unit Test
Year 2
21.85
56.01
38.75
2.86
large
Year 3
20.39
61.66
45.87
2.66
large
NAEP/
TIMSS Test
Year 2
27.02
53.28
28.69
2.01
large
Year 3
29.06
56.60
27.49
2.04
large
Unit Test
Year 2
25.58
52.33
34.89
1.81
large
Year 3
28.98
52.73
35.33
1.55
large
NAEP/
TIMSS Test
Year 2
28.15
44.83
19.44
1.00
large
Year 3
31.75
46.19
18.15
.81
large
Unit Test
Year 3
25.22
48.94
7.00
1.96
large
Year 4
24.46
47.50
8.12
1.85
large
Year 3
43.64
54.34
10.47
.66
medium
Year 4
44.42
57.71
5.84
.79
medium
Grade 4:
Teacher
Cohort 2
Grade 5:
Teacher
Cohort 3
NAEP/
TIMSS Test
ª d >.20 is “small” effect size; d >.50 is “medium”; and d >.80 is “large.”