Collaborative Research: Building Capacity for Cross-site Research on Promoting Noticing for Equity and Equitable Science Teaching Practice through Video Analysis

The project will serve the national need to develop equitable and effective science teaching practice by building capacity to investigate the use of video analysis tasks in teacher preparation. Through a cross-site collaboration, a plan for a longitudinal study focused on STEM teacher effectiveness and retention in high-need schools will be developed. The COVID-19 pandemic gives new urgency to video analysis as large numbers of teacher preparation programs have had to use digital libraries of classroom video cases in lieu of traditional field experiences in schools. In addition, the importance of how teachers are prepared to enact equitable, justice-oriented, culturally responsive, and linguistically sustaining pedagogies in support of the success of K-12 students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education cannot be underestimated. This project builds upon five years of prior work of the seven institutions involved in which the partners discussed, designed, and studied video analysis within science teacher preparation and developed the Framework for Analyzing Video in Science Teacher Education (FAVSTE).

This project involves a collaboration of science teacher educators from partnering universities (the Collaborative) including Vanderbilt University, Texas State University—San Marcos, Teachers College—Columbia University, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, the University of Northern Iowa, Florida International University, and Kennesaw State University who will work with partner high-need school districts. The project has three main intents regarding capacity building intended to situate the Collaborative to be well-positioned to submit a Track 4 Research proposal. One is to continue to analyze and modify the FAVSTE framework and associated tools to ensure that they explicitly support noticing for equity. A second is to identify, modify, and pilot research instruments to analyze teachers' professional vision, its link to equitable science teaching practice, and how this vision changes over time in relation to teacher effectiveness and retention. And the third is to develop a cross-site, longitudinal research study that incorporates practical instructional tools for video analysis and research tools for studying effectiveness and retention of STEM teachers in high-need school districts. Data collection and analysis consistent with a design-based research approach will be used. The work will allow the Collaborative to deepen its theoretical and methodological understanding of how to use video in teacher preparation to support equitable science teaching practice. The project intends to disseminate insights and best practices emanating from this project through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), a partner of the Collaborative, as well as professional organizations including the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). This Capacity Building project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce Program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.