Organizers

1
CCMS Knowledge Sharing Institute 2006Strand 3
Student Learning Characterizing Learning
Progressions

• Organizers
• Andy Anderson, Michigan State University
• Beth Covitt, Michigan State University
• Karen Draney, University of California - Berkley
• Ravit Golan Duncan, Rutgers
• Joe Krajcik, University of Michigan
• Phil Piety, University of Michigan
• Shawn Stevens, University of Michigan

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Goals of Session

• Develop common understanding of what we mean by a
  learning progression
• Why, What, and How
• Examine why learning progressions are important
• Begin to appreciate some of the challenges
  involved in developing a learning progression

3
Overview
230-245 Introductions, overview of session
purpose, and group questions Three Examples
related to the Structure of Matter -- each will
address -- why, how and what 245 -
315 Structure of Matter -- Shawn 315 -
345 Carbon Cycle -- Andy, Beth, and Chris 345
- 400 Break 400 - 430 High School Chemistry
-- Karen Draney 430 - 500 Reflections and
Commentary - Ravit Duncan 500 - 530 Group
Discussion
4
Learning Progressions

• Description of successively more sophisticated
  ways of thinking about a big idea
• Provide a framework for long-term development
• Describes what it means to move towards more
  expert understanding in an area
• Gauge increasing competence over time
• A sequence of successively more complex ways of
  thinking about how an idea develops over time
• Consider how ideas build upon each other to form
  more complex practices or ideas

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Why Learning Progressions?

• Learning is facilitated when new and existing
  knowledge is structured around big ideas or a
  conceptual framework rather than small, discrete
  bits of information.
• Learning develops as a continuous process with an
  individual continuously making links back and
  forth among ideas and not in linear, discrete
  steps.
• Learning difficult ideas takes time and often
  comes together as students work on a task that
  forces them to synthesize ideas.
• Yet, K 12 science curricula are generally not
  structured to build and cycle back on ideas.

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Important Considerations for Development

• The big idea should be revisited throughout K-12
  schooling, so that knowledge becomes
  progressively more refined and elaborated
• Are not developmentally inevitable
• Rather, instructional sequences to support
  student understanding
• Can be developed for units of study, year of
  study, K - 5, middle school, high school or the
  entire K - 12 or K - 16 experience
• Should be based on what we know about student
  learning

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Important Considerations for Development

• Need to develop empirical support for proposed
  learning progressions
• Little if any empirical evidence exists today.
• Many practical problems will confront researchers
  and teachers implementing learning progressions
  in classrooms
• Not aligned with State standards
• Materials are typically not structured in this
  fashion
• Topics selected because of standardized test
  pressures

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What would you like to learn?
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(No Transcript)
10
How a Scientific Idea Typically Develops
Energy
Little understanding
11
Development of Scientific Idea Learning
Progression Over Time
Energy
Energy
Deep and Meaningful
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What are Big Ideas

• The core concepts and principles represent the
  big ideas of the field.
• Big ideas
• help learners understand a variety of ideas about
  field
• provide insight into the development of the
  field or have a key influence on explaining the
  major ideas in the domain
• provide ideas/models to explain a range of
  phenomena
• allow learners to intellectually make individual,
  social, and political decisions regarding science
  and technology.