Developing protocols to support collaborative teacher reflection and professional learning for science argument writing

Abstract

This white paper describes the development of a suite of teacher reflection protocols that structure generative conversations among teachers about instruction in support of students’ written scientific arguments. Guided by the principles of design-based implementation research, a team of researchers from SRI and The Lawrence Hall of Science collaborated with the National Writing Project to develop three distinct protocols, each geared to a different stage of an instructional cycle: a planning protocol for assignment and supporting lesson design, an assignment protocol to support collaborative reflection on a writing task and its instructional surrounds, and a consultancy protocol to help teachers guide a larger group examination of student work.

The protocols are designed to be used by teachers—either individually or as part of a professional learning community—or by professional development providers to guide the creation of an assignment or to analyze the assignment and instructional supports. All the protocols are intended to focus teachers’ discussions on specific features of scientific argument prompts and instructional supports for students to write an argument. By explicitly grounding the research in components of the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices, the protocol suite supports teachers with the complex process of developing students’ emergent science argument writing practice.