BSCS Project “STeLLA” Launches Pilot Test Study with 24 Teachers

BSCS hosted 24 Colorado Springs-area pilot test teachers at a two-week summer institute in July for the NSF-funded STeLLA (Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis) project. Led by seven BSCS science educators and five University of Denver science faculty, the institute introduced 4th- and 5th-grade teachers to the STeLLA lesson analysis strategies, provided content deepening experiences, and prepared teachers to implement the strategies in their classrooms for the 2010-11 school year. During the institute, morning sessions focused on deepening teachers’ content knowledge in the areas of food webs and the water cycle, and afternoon sessions engaged teachers with lesson analysis through review of video clips of other science teachers. Participants will work in small groups guided by BSCS professional development leaders throughout the school year to implement strategies and analyze video of their own classrooms.

STeLLA is an innovative professional development program that supports science teachers through a year-long sequence of teacher-learning activities that use a unique videocase-based approach. Teachers learn to examine their practice through two lenses: a Student Thinking Lens and a Science Content Storyline Lens. Working in small, facilitated study groups, teachers analyze videocases of science teaching to deepen their content and pedagogical content knowledge and to improve their science teaching practice. The five-year, $4.9 Million, research and development project will test the effectiveness of implementing, sustaining, and scaling the STeLLA professional development program, which demonstrated significant impact on both teacher and student learning in an earlier study in California. The project will expand from the current pilot test phase to a larger-scale research study in 2011 with an estimated 200 teachers participating from Denver-area schools. Recruitment for the 2011-12 research study will begin in the fall.

Click here for more information about STeLLA.