Next Generation Science Standards

Implementation in Liberal Studies at CSU Bakersfield

The Project

• Increase abilities of pre-service K-8 teachers in knowledge and practice of NGSS

• 2 main components– SCI 325A: Integrated Science from a life science

perspective• Capstone science course in Liberal studies

– EDTE 310: Early field experience in teaching• Goal: Integrate and align content and practice

Content: SCI 325A Integrated Science

• Adjusted course content to more closely align with NGSS– Including small-scale introduction of Engineering

principles• Added module on Academic Literacy• Revised lesson plan assignment– Replaced CA Science standards with NGSS practices,

crosscutting concepts & performance expectations– Peer review with revision– Academic language component

EDTE 310: Early field experience

• Change venue and verb– From in-school school observation to After school

teaching– Lesson-plan assignment aligned to SCI 325A• Ideally, extension of 325A lesson plan• Practice: students teach the lesson they designed

– With opportunity for revision

Assessment

• Teaching skills and Abilities– 25 item pre-post Science Teacher Efficacy Belief Instrument

• Asks specifically about teaching practices

• Content knowledge– 46 item Pre-post course Knowledge survey based on NGSS

and SCI 325A content coverage• 12 practice only items; 17 content only, 17 practice & content• Composite measure: Average change (post-pre)

• All results on SCI 325A students– EDTE 310 students excluded because n<5

STEBI

• Each question analyzed individually for Students taking SCI 325A (Wilcoxon sign-rank test)

• Two items showed significant changes:– “When teaching Science I usually welcome student

questions” showed a significant change towards the “Disagree” end of the scale (p=0.046)

– “I know the step necessary to teach Science concepts effectively” showed a significant change toward the “Agree” scale (p=0.031)

• 23 remaining questions showed no change

Results: NGSS Knowledge Survey

Overall Practice only Content only Performance Expectation

00.10.20.30.40.50.6

Question set

Δ re

spon

se (P

ost-P

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Mean ±95% Confidence intervalOverall, p<0.000005; Practice only p<0.05; Content only & PE p<0.0000005

More NGSS

• Multiple regression analyses: – Independent analysis for each question subset– Prior GPA, Exam performance, and Lab

performance as Independent variables• 1 Significant effect– Lab performance on practice-only question

subset. (b=0.02, p=0.042)