Next Generation Science Standards: Conceptual and Pedagogical Shifts in STEM/STEAM Teaching in K to 12 Classrooms

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) calls for a new approach to science education necessitating a pedagogical shift. In this chapter, several research-based projects conducted by the Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education (CMSCE) to support teachers in aligning their curricula and instruction to the NGSS are discussed. In one project, the CMSCE created a 4-day summer academy for a local high school for NGSS alignment, and evaluated the pedagogical shifts that teachers made as they re-designed instruction to align with the NGSS. The approach to teacher professional development (PD) utilized in the summer institute emphasized project-based learning. The CMSCE also led follow-up Professional Learning Community meetings (PLCs) throughout the year providing teachers with opportunities to develop and implement lesson plans, share the outcomes of their aligning their lessons as they implemented them, provide each other with feedback, and further refine curricula and instructional assessments. Data collected suggested that teachers made important conceptual pedagogical shifts as they participated in the PD, and also identified a variety of challenges associated with those shifts. In another project to support teachers in curricular alignment to the NGSS funded by the NJ Department of Education, we provided a summer institute held at Rutgers to provide teacher PD by Rutgers faculty to promising science teachers from approximately 18 high school and middle schools in 10 local school districts. Assessment data provided evidence that the teachers made significant improvements in their pedagogical and content knowledge from the project. Together, the findings from these research projects may help to inform future PD efforts to support teachers in aligning their curricula and instruction to the NGSS.