Strategic Education Research Partnership (2003) / Chapter Skim
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4. SERP Networks: Who Would Come and What Would They Do?
4. SERP Networks: Who Would Come and What Would They Do?
Pages 79-106
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From page 79... ...
She committee has found the teaching hospital a useful metaphor for the envisioned collaborative relationships: the functions of practice and research would in good part be located in the same site (SERP field sites) , professional preparation of both practitioners and researchers would be merged with high-level research activity, and links with university research departments would be strong.
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From page 80... ...
, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, is a case in point. A large body of research has been 80 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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From page 81... ...
For this reason, affiliation with SERP must be compatible with university commitments. The proposed SERP structure, with most of the research and development being carried out in dispersed field sites where researchers and practitioners partner, allows for a simultaneous commitment to a university and to SERP research.
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From page 83... ...
The relatively meager funding of education research and the instability of the federal commitment of funds for education research over the years have not created a strong pull on intellectual resources to the problems of education. If SERP operates with a relatively stable, sizable budget as described in Chapter 3, there will be a financial incentive for researchers to turn their attention to the problems of educational practice that could become quite powerful as the commitments of states grow.
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From page 84... ...
The primary answer, in our view, is that education leaders at all three levels have a desirewhether motivated by civic contribution, reputation, career opportunity, or accountability measures to do a better job of educating students. If SERP is successful in its early years at linking research and practice to improve student learning outcomes, we think that attracting new field sites will be facilitated by the expectation of continued success.
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From page 85... ...
A second network on schools as organizations would, we think, be a critical companion to the learning and instruction network because the organizational environment of the school creates the conditions and incentives required to support and sustain instructional change. We anticipate that as work progresses during the start-up years, each network would develop five to eight related strands of work that speak to its hub question, employing the full panoply of research methods (experimental design, longitudinal studies, S E R P N E T W O R K S 85
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From page 86... ...
In our judgment, the organizational and implementation issues associated with educational change are also absolutely central to SERP's mission. Efforts to improve learning and instruction, the motivation and engage86 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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From page 87... ...
· What instructional interventions can move students along a path from their initial understandings and skills to the desired outcome (curricula, instructional activities, etch? · What general and discipline-specific norms and practices best comprise and support student learning?
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From page 88... ...
A program of research and development can improve the answers to those questions by providing a solid knowIedge base to support both teaching practice and professional preparation, as well as by expanding the instructional and assessment tools available to teachers. The questions that define educational practice can be informed by several very different fields of research and knowIedge: 88 · What students should know or be able to do in an area is informed (but not fully determined)
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From page 89... ...
Instructional programs involve assumptions about the contributors to skill development, knowledge acquisition, and conceptual change that should themselves be a research agenda, and the effectiveness of the instructional approach is a matter for empirical testing. · General and discipline-specific norms and practices that support student learning.
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From page 90... ...
Yet despite its importance, the research base on teacher learning is relatively undeveloped; the grasp of the content of the teacher knowledge that produces achievement is shallow. The questions above that we argue define teaching practice apply just as aptly to teacher learning as to student learning.
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From page 91... ...
What knowledge and skill is best acquired once they enter the profession? What organizational, material, and human resources are necessary to support and sustain teacher learning over time?
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From page 92... ...
ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS ~ . Investment in recent decades by federal agencies and private foundations has produced a wealth of knowledge on the 92 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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From page 93... ...
The report identifies five intertwining strands that constitute mathematical proficiency (National Research Council, 2001~: · Conceptual understanding comprehension of mathematical concepts, operations, and relations; · Proceduralfluency skill in carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately; · Strategic competence ability to formulate, represent, and solve mathematical problems; · Adaptive reasoning capacity for logical thought, reflection, explanation, and justification; S E R P N E T W O R K S 93
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From page 94... ...
However, instruction that does not explore, build on, or connect with children's informal reasoning processes and approaches can have undesirable consequences. Children 94 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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From page 95... ...
Curriculum Development Past investments in research and development have produced curricular interventions to address each of the two problems raised above. A well-developed and promising research base on the Number Worlds curriculum suggests that wellplanned activities designed to put each step required in mastering the concept of quantity securely in place can allow disadvantaged students to catch up to their more advantaged peers right at the start of formal schooling.
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From page 96... ...
, several full-scare elementary mathematics curricula with embedded assessments have been developed, directed at supporting deeper conceptual understanding of mathematics concepts and building on children's informal knowledge of mathematics to provide a more flexible foundation for supporting problem solving. Three curricula developed separately take somewhat different approaches to achieving those goals: the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, the Investigations in Number, Data and Space curriculum, and the Math Trailblazers curriculum (Education Development Center, Inc., 2001~.
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From page 97... ...
These questions are answerable, but research carefully designed to provide the answers will take a substantial, Tong-term investment. A s s e s s m e n ~ The curricula described above have embedded assessments that allow teachers to track student learning.
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From page 98... ...
This is clearly an important area for further study. One clue regarding teacher knowledge requirements can be found in research pursued for the most part separately from the work on student learning and the design of curriculum approaches, tools, and materials discussed above.
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From page 99... ...
Following this work, some materials for use in teachers' professional development have been developed.2 Modules and other curriculum materials contain focused work aimed at helping teachers learn the sort of mathematical knowledge of whole numbers and operations that is needed for teaching. As with the curricula developed for students' learning discussed above, developers of teacher learning materials provide some evidence of teachers' learning of mathematics for teaching, but they have studied less the role of this learning in the teacher's subsequent instructional practice and effectiveness.
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From page 100... ...
The proposed agenda is comprised of three major initiatives. The first focuses on developing assessments to measure student knowledge, a second evaluates promising curricula and the effects of their particular design features on student outcomes, and a third focuses on the teacher knowledge requirements to comfortably and effectively use curricula that are built on research-based findings regarding student learning.
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From page 101... ...
These may be helpful to the teacher in redesigning instruction for the next year, providing valuable data on students' strengths and weaknesses that can inform instruction at the next level. Schoolor district-level assessments have more general policy purposes, most commonly to determine attainment levels for groups of students in order to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional program; to monitor attainment by racial, ethnic, or disability category; and in some cases to hold schools accountable for the performance of their students.
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From page 102... ...
Thus a strand of research focused on implementation issues should address the set of questions critical to successful use of quality assessments: · What teacher knowledge is necessary to support effective use of assessments in their instructional practice? These include teacher understanding of the assessmeets and their purpose, as well as practical considerations of the time to administer, score, and interpret results.
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From page 103... ...
To take advantage of existing investments in research and development in elementary mathematics will require further work regarding teacher learning and knowledge requirements and the supports that allow teachers to use these curricula comfortably and effectively. This research should begin with a clear articulation of the principles and assumptions about student learning that the curriculum incorporates, comparing these to carefully solicited understandings of teachers.
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From page 104... ...
In addition, based on what is known about teachers' knowledge of whole number and operations for teaching, as well as about teacher learning, systematic variations could be designed to support the implementation of these different instructional approaches. For example, in one set of schools, a teacher specialist model might be deployed, and, in others, teachers might engage in a closely focused study of practice (instruction, student learning, mathematical tasks)
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From page 105... ...
The companion report provides a more extensive agenda, but even that is limited to the learning and instruction network. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the proposed SERP organization is that programs of research on schools as organizations and on education policy will be developed alongside that of learning and instruction.
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