| | AERA 2003 papers from LeTUS presenters are available here.AERA 2002 papers from LeTUS presenters are available here.AERA 2001 papers from LeTUS presenters are available here.Read and download other LeTUS Web-only and published papers. Research projects and mission statement Research lies at the heart of all our work at the Center. We call our approach "research for practice" and it has two main goals:
 | To improve the practice of teachers and administrators in urban schools | | To reform the practice of educational research
|
Research for practice differs from traditional research in that it includes both researchers and teachers in the design, revision, and implementation process for new curricula, technology, and teaching methods. This collaborative approach effectively avoids the creation of materials that are too theoretical and impractical for real-world classroom use. The overarching research questions in LeTUS focus on teacher change, student change, and LeTUS’ impact on curriculum reform. We use numerous quantitative and qualitative research methods-interviews, focus groups, participant observation, pre- and post-enactment content assessment, pre- and post-enactment attitudinal surveys, and student artifacts-to study teacher and student learning, changes in teacher practice, changes in teacher and student technology usage, researcher learning, and changes in local and district level policies. Investigation into teacher change focuses on several questions. How does curriculum enactment affect teachers’ attitudes toward technology? How does it affect teachers’ content knowledge? Teacher pedagogy? What adaptations do teachers make to LeTUS curricula during enactment? What warrants those adaptations? We are also exploring what impact LeTUS’ extensive professional development activities have in these same areas. Research on student change focuses on student learning, technology skills, scientific literacy, and inquiry abilities. In essence, how do students change and grow in their ability to make use of technology and inquiry to construct scientific knowledge? LeTUS is also investigating its impact on curriculum reform. Specifically, what impact has LeTUS had on the integration of technology and curriculum in schools? How has LeTUS’ technology infrastructure support affected curriculum enactment and access to technology? What impact has LeTUS’ collaboration with district administrations had on district-level policy? How has this collaboration helped build communities of practice between technology and curriculum administrators? In what ways does LeTUS foster communities of practice at the local school level? Finally, LeTUS researchers are exploring how the teacher-researcher collaboration affects their own understanding of curriculum design and teacher professional development. The following papers from both Northwestern University and the University of Michigan represent just a part of LeTUS' research activities. Read and download Web-only and published papers. Click here to download LeTUS assessment documents. | These papers from researchers at Northwestern are available as PDF files. Please click on a title to download it:
| International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) Papers Sherin, B., Schwartz, J., Kanter, D., Stieff, M., MacKenzie, S. and Herman, P. (2002) Conceptual Dynamics in Project-Based Science. Matese, G., Sherin, M. G., & Edelson, D. C. (2002). Design principles for scaffolding inquiry-based science assessment. In P. Bell, R. Stevens, & T. Satwicz (Eds.), Keeping Learning Complex: The Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) (pp.276-283). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. | | Teaching Middle School Human Biology Through Biomedical Engineering-based Project Contexts. Kanter, D., Kemp, E., & Reiser, B. Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education Sectional Conference, March, 2001. | A Lab by Any Other Name: Integrating Traditional Labs and Computer-Supported Collaborative Investigations in Science Classrooms. Brown, M. and Edelson, D.C. | Software in Context: Designing for Students, Teachers, and Classroom Enactment. Brown, M., Edelson, D. | Steering the Course of Dialog in Inquiry-Based Science Classrooms. Tabak, I., & Reiser, B. J. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. April, 1999 (This link will take you to the BGuILE site where several papers are listed. Click on your Back button to return to this page.) | Iterative Design of a Technology-Supported Biological Inquiry Curriculum. Sandoval, W. A., & Reiser, B. J. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 1998), San Diego, CA. April 13-17, 1998. (This link will take you to the BGuILE site where several papers are listed. Click on your Back button to return to this page.) | National Geographic Unplugged: Classroom-Centered Design of Interactive Nature Films. Smith, B.K., & Reiser, B.J. In CHI '98. Conference Proceedings on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (424-431). Los Angeles, CA | Reflection as a Vehicle toward Local and Global Understanding. Tabak, I., Sandoval, W.A., Smith, B. K., Steinmuller, F., & Reiser, B.J. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. April, 1998 | Complementary Roles of Software-based Scaffolding and Teacher-Student Interactions in Inquiry Learning. Tabak, I., & Reiser, B.J. In Proceedings of the 1997 Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL '97), December 10-14, 1997 Toronto, Canada | | The Progress Portfolio: Designing Reflective Tools for a Classroom Context. In the Proceedings of CHI 98. (627-634). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley | BGuILE: Strategic and Conceptual Scaffolds for Scientific Inquiry in Biology Classrooms. Reiser, B.J., Tabak, I., Sandoval, W.A., Smith, B.K., Steinmuller, F. and Leone, A.J. To appear in S.M. Carver and D. Klahr (Eds.). Cognition and Instruction: Twenty-five Years of Progress. Mahwah, NJ. Erlbaum. 2001 | Investigating the Mutual Adaptation Process in Teachers’ Design of Technology-infused Curricula. Reiser, B.J., Spillane, J.P., Steinmuller, F., Sorsa, D., Carney, K., & Kyza, E. In B. Fishman & S. O'Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Learning Sciences (pp. 342-349). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. | | Toward a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective. Spillane, J.P., Halverson, R. and Diamond, J.B. Instituted for Policy Research Working Paper 1999. | These papers and others from researchers at University of Michigan are available for online viewing and, in the case of PDF files, for download. Just click on a title to read or download it. | Foundations of Science: A Three-Year Integrated High School Curriculum. Pryor, A. and Soloway, E. | Inquiry-based Science Supported by Technology: Achievement Among Urban Middle School Students (PDF). Krajcik, J., Blumenfeld, P., Soloway, E. and Fishman, B. | ScienceWare's Model-It: Technology to Support Authentic Science Inquiry. Soloway, E., Pryor, A., Krajcik, J., Jackson, S., Stratford, S., Wisnudel, M. and Klein, J. | Observations of Urban Middle School Students Engaged in Technology-supported Inquiry (PDF). Taines, C., Schneider, R. and Blumenfeld, P.C. | Promoting Conceptual Understanding of Chemical Representations. Students' Use of a Visualization Tool in the Classroom (PDF). Wu, H., Krajcik, J. and Soloway, E. | Technological Support for Teachers Transitioning to Project-Based Science Practices. Soloway, E., Krajcik, J. and Blumenfeld, P. | Home | Top of Page |
|
