Conducting a Systematic Review of Research to Build a Next Generation Teacher Professional Learning Framework in Math and Science

Hundreds of millions of dollars every year are spent by states and school districts on providing preK-12 teachers with professional development to improve their mathematics and science instruction, but these efforts are not always successful in resulting in better instruction for the nation's students. Research on teacher professional learning over the last several decades has expanded the field's understanding of how and under what conditions teachers learn to teach mathematics and science, and this body of work can inform these efforts. Findings and insights about teacher professional learning across this body of work, when understood collectively, can be powerful towards supporting teacher change. This project synthesizes research on teacher learning to distill ideas and develop a new, deeper understanding of how preK-12 teacher professional learning in mathematics and science influences teacher beliefs, knowledge, and practice. This study will provide information that enables states, districts, and schools to elevate the quality of teacher professional learning in STEM to lead to more effective instruction that fosters more and better STEM student engagement and learning and motivates more students to choose STEM careers. This project's potential benefit to society is to increase the field's capacity to improve STEM teacher professional learning in ways that transform and strengthen teacher effectiveness, which in turn improve STEM engagement and learning for all students. This three-year synthesis project involves a mixed method systematic review of research on teachers' professional learning to distill ideas and develop a new, next generation framework (theory of change) that reflects a deeper, improved understanding of how teacher professional learning in mathematics and science influences teacher beliefs, knowledge, and practice. The long-term goal of the project is to elevate the quality of teacher professional learning in STEM to lead to more effective instruction that fosters more and better STEM student engagement, learning, and choice of STEM career pathways. To support this goal, the project will (1) develop and utilize an initial professional learning framework benefiting from insights in STEM and other fields, (2) use the initial framework to guide a mixed-method systematic review that leverages existing teacher professional learning literature in mathematics and science, and (3) produce a next generation theory of teacher learning in mathematics and science that reflects complexity, context, and interactions, to guide the design of professional learning to make it more effective in fostering teacher growth. The project's central hypothesis is that a consideration of theoretical ideas from STEM and other fields and the comprehensive review of both quantitative and qualitative mathematics and science professional learning literature can result in new important understandings that can advance the field's ability to design and implement effective STEM professional learning in service of improved teaching and learning. The project will result in a professional learning framework that will guide the field in its pursuit to support teachers in providing more engaging and impactful mathematics and science instruction. This project is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), an applied research program that seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for funded projects. 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.