BIO

Hi! My name is Jennifer Lafortune. I'm a first-generation Haitian-American, second-year Florida State student from Miami, Florida majoring in Public Health and minoring in Chemistry. My career goal is to become a pediatric cardiologist while conducting research in the public health sector, more specifically in Maternal and Fetal Medicine.

Exploring Science Teachers’ Perceptions About Co-Design Process Focused on Classroom Assessment Tasks

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a set of education standards used across disciplines and grades in the United States to provide students with an internationally benchmarked science education rich in content and practice. The primary purpose of NGSS is to create a common standard for teaching in the U.S. and help in fostering a greater interest in science among students. Classroom-based performance assessments are embedded into classroom instructions to provide teachers with insight into how their students understand the material taught in class and monitor the development of their thinking skills. Three-dimension (3-D) assessments allow teachers to evaluate and monitor students’ progress during the course and use the evidence to offer targeted support catered to the student’s needs. While numerous states and school districts seek to find class-based performance assessments that support their goals for effective science instruction and NGSS guidelines, few quality assessments exist. This research introduces an accessible and receptive co-design process that focuses on five critical points that advantage their expertise. Seven 8th grade science teachers from an urban district participated in ten co-design meetings over six months. In this study, the teachers’ experiences regarding the co-design meetings and the way they perceived the co-design meetings were examined through the usage of interview protocol questions used to elicit teachers to think about their experiences during the meetings.

Keywords: teacher education, classroom assessments, co-design process