LeTUS at Northwestern University
The Chicago Public Schools’ local partner is Northwestern University. LeTUS is housed in the School of Education and Social Policy. LeTUS’ mission fits well with the School’s overall approach to its work. The School focuses on educational policy in the belief that education in this country needs to change. It needs to be broader and deeper to reflect the fact that education occurs not only in classrooms but also in families, neighborhoods, workplace settings, and other social institutions. The School focuses on the “when” of learning as well as on the “where.” The faculty approach learning as a lifelong developmental process and work toward systemic educational change for that reason.
The partners in LeTUS take the same systemic and long-range approach to their work. Those involved in LeTUS’ curriculum and technology design process— university faculty, school administrators, and classroom teachers—along with key funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation and Lucent Technologies, work together to effect change at all levels.
Research for Practice
Research is the foundation of all of our work at the Center. We call our approach "research for practice" and it has two main goals; 1) to improve the practice of teachers and administrators in urban schools and 2) to change traditional methods of educational research.
Research for practice differs from traditional research in that it includes both researchers and teachers in the process. This collaborative approach effectively avoids the creation of materials that are too theoretical and impractical for real-world classroom use.
As LeTUS’ researchers investigate the process of developing and teaching project-based, inquiry-driven science curricula, they continue to build a body of literature to support and extend these concepts. Northwestern’s researchers are especially interested in how teachers change their teaching practice during the process of using LeTUS curricula. They are also examining whether teachers develop a new self-understanding in the process of participating in curriculum design work circles and, if so, how? LeTUS researchers and computer software designers actively look for innovative ways to communicate—and enable students to communicate—complex scientific knowledge. At the heart of LeTUS’ work at Northwestern, is research into how students learn, how teachers teach, and how school systems can change to better support both.
Curriculum Design
Developing a new curriculum in LeTUS follows a three-step process:
Curricula developed this way are not only theoretically grounded, but address the needs of urban school settings so that the curricula can be an effective vehicle for reform.
LeTUS designs curricula in “work circles.” These are design teams of classroom teachers and researchers. Researchers bring their knowledge of educational theory and teachers contribute a real-world classroom perspective to keep both curricula and technology developmentally appropriate for student learning. Work circles design curricula to meet the demands of school life and participate in an ongoing revision process. Combining real-world teaching practice and fundamental pedagogical theory makes LeTUS’ approach to science education truly unique.
Professional Development
One important aspect of this work is the professional development of teachers. Teaching a project based or inquiry based science unit sometimes means changing one’s whole view of teaching—something that is encouraged and nurtured through numerous professional development opportunities. For example, the Lucent Leaders in Learning program enables experienced LeTUS teachers in Chicago to pass their skills and knowledge on to other teachers through a graduate-credit course at Northwestern. Sixteen of these “teacher-students” took Teaching Inquiry-based Science with Technology in the winter of 2002.In these years, 98 teachers have taken the Lucent class. Class members developed their skills with such curricula as ReNUE, Earth Structures and Processes, Behavior Matters, and Water Quality by watching experienced teachers use them and through critiquing their own teaching.
In addition to the professional development work LeTUS does with practicing teachers, we also work with pre-service teachers. For example, a LeTUS curriculum is now used in the Secondary Science and Mathematics Methods course being offered at Northwestern. In this class pre-service teachers work through one of the LeTUS activities and watch video examples from LeTUS classrooms of teachers using the curriculum. The purpose of the activity is to expose pre-service teachers to useful techniques that promote inquiry teaching in science and mathematics. Examples of LeTUS curricula and video collected from LeTUS classrooms are also used in this course to explore innovative uses of technology in the classroom.
LeTUS’ work has also influenced the NU/GATE Program, a new initiative in Chicago to bring talented mid-career professionals into the teaching profession. NU/GATE is a collaboration between Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, The Golden Apple Foundation, and the Chicago Public Schools. In this program, professionals seeking a career transition to teaching go through an intensive summer of student teaching and seminars co-taught by NU faculty and practicing teachers. After completing the summer work, GATE interns become CPS teachers and receie continuing mentoring by experienced teachers and NU faculty. LeTUS schools now serve as student teaching sites for GATE interns during the summer, and LeTUS teachers are involved in mentoring some of the interns.
In 1999, LeTUS hired Lou-Ellen Finn and Steve Best as LeTUS’ professional development coordinator in Chicago and Detroit, respectively. The primary responsibility of these coordinators is to work with teacher liaisons to provide classroom support to teachers as well as lead and help coordinate teacher professional development activities. We have found that it is crucial to have experienced teachers fill the role of teacher facilitator because they can relate to the enacting teacher’s obstacles, pressures, and concerns. Additionally, they are viewed by the teachers as peers who understand the practice of teaching in a real-world setting.
LeTUS sponsors a Chicago Summer Teachers Conference in Chicago each July. At this conference, teachers earn about our curricula and software directly, by doing lessons and using software. In “hands-on” sessions, teachers with extensive experience guide attendees through specific curricula and model inquiry-based teaching methods. The Conference gives teachers a chance to gain the experience and confidence to use the lessons and technology in their own classes.
Projects in Development
I, Bio: Middle-school students are just beginning to learn about nutrition, cells, and organs, so LeTUS at Northwestern has begun developing a project-based human biology curriculum. The unit covers organs and organ systems in the human body, cells, energy transformation, and nutrition. Using a novel sensor, students measure oxygen consumption during specific activities to investigate their energy needs during a typical day at school.
Create-a-World: In this earth science unit, students explore factors affecting the variation in Earth’s global temperature. Using WorldWatcher data visualizations and data from other offline investigations, students generate and test hypotheses about the temperature variation.
Mars Survival Station: As the number of people on Earth continues to rise, more and more people are considering the question of settlement in space. But can humans live somewhere other than on Earth? The challenge to students in the Mars Survival Station unit is to make a sealed-dome space station on Mars habitable for people. Students must ensure that a group of 10 astronauts have enough food, air, and water to live.
Solar Energy: Have you ever wondered what would happen if all of our non-renewable energy sources suddenly disappeared and we were left with only the sun? In the Solar Energy curriculum, students investigate specific climate areas to develop a solar house that would meet the needs of those areas if all they had were the sun.
Faculty Research Interests
Louis Gomez, Aon Professor in the Learning Sciences.
Dr. Gomez’ research interests lie in the areas of supporting teaching and learning with computing and networking; applied cognitive science; human-computer interaction; computer-supported collaborative learning.
Brian Reiser, Associate Professor of Education.
Dr. Reiser’s research interests include interactive learning environments for science education, scientific inquiry and argumentation skills, and conceptual change.
Danny Edelson, Assistant Professor of Education and Computer Science.
Dr. Edelson currently carries on research into computer support for open-ended learning, collaborative learning environments, scientific visualization environments for learning; and case-based teaching systems.
Teachers are often drawn to LeTUS’ work because of the chance to work with highly interactive, computer-based technology. They continue using LeTUS’ curricula when they see how their own teaching methods change. Even as they learn how to use the software, conversations about science content and teaching methods take place. This type of growth brings change in teaching children. It extends beyond the classroom to school administrators, then to families and communities. LeTUS’ work in Chicago has ripples of change throughout the system and in individual lives.
New products, processes, and findings emerge as this process goes on. Follow the links at left to learn more about LeTUS’ activities in Detroit Public Schools and at the University of Michigan.
