Virginia Mathematics Teacher Fall 2016

element of the argument. After discussing one another’s boards, students receive content-based direct instruction and collect additional data or revise their boards. The final product is an individual report that has been double-blind peer reviewed prior to submission. PD events used the ADI strategy as the instructional model for teacher-level content. This allowed teachers to strengthen their own content knowledge and experience prior to using the model into their classrooms. LENS assessments were used as the basis for nine middle school assessments that measure student progress in experimental design, scientific reasoning, and argument evaluation. ADI assistance for mathematics and science is available upon request. Project 3: Building Bridges across the Elementary Curriculum Using Argument Driven Inquiry (Bridges). (2015-present) Currently in its second year, Bridges has served 37 grade 4 and 5 teachers and 28 grade 3 teachers. At institutes hosted by Old Dominion University and Hampton City Schools, grade 4 and 5 teachers learn science content through ADI. The elementary version of ADI prioritizes opportunities for students to apply mathematics skills such as measurement, quantification, data tabulation and graphing, in science-oriented contexts. During the school year, an instructional coach supports implementation of pre-developed lessons. Once again, local assessment priorities have been

included. Teachers have worked with university faculty to learn how to develop and pilot performance assessments that assess progress in observation, classification, hypothesis generation, quantification, measurement, graphing, and drawing conclusion. Lessons and sample assessments are available upon request. Project evaluations measured teachers’ science content knowledge and argumentation skills (LENS, D’n’A, Bridges), and beliefs about the nature of science (LENS only). Statistically significant pre- to posttest differences were found in content and pedagogical content knowledge (p<0.05), with the exception of science content knowledge in the first year of the Bridges project (p>0.05). Teachers’ motivation for their subject area was positively impacted by the PD focus on hands-on, teacher-designed investigations. Broader impacts included additional collaborations between project partners, faculty adoption of the ADI instructional model in college courses, improved STEM-pipeline related communication between high school and college faculty, and the development of a generalizable approach to workflow. Despite anecdotal reports and observations of high student engagement, a general limitation of the projects is the low number of teacher participants from SOL-tested grades and the resulting lack of evidence regarding impact on SOL scores. An additional limitation of the LENS Key Findings and Limitations

Figure 2. A General Model of Professional Development through School-University Collaboration

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 43, no. 1

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