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Abstract
Even though science education standards have elevated the practice of modeling over the last few decades, research continues to show teacher knowledge of models and their modeling practices remain narrow and scientifically limited (Wang, Chi, Hu, Chen, 2014). A recent report, Science Teachers’ Learning (NRC, 2015), highlights a promising, robust body of evidence that indicates professional learning programs can lead to beneficial changes in science teachers’ knowledge of reform-based pedagogy. Yet, given the limited discipline-specific professional development opportunities for teachers, it is not surprising that the curriculum remains “the single most powerful determinant of teacher knowledge, serving as both its organizer and source” (Arzi & White, 2007, p.221). Recognizing the time teachers must spend reading, translating, and modifying traditional curriculum resources in order to develop classroom practices that reflect reform-based teaching and learning, some efforts to support changes in teacher knowledge and pedagogical design capacity have now focused on doing so through educative curriculum materials (Davis & Krajcik, 2005). To examine how modeling-based, educative curriculum materials can support and extend more traditional professional learning opportunities designed to support teachers’ knowledge and strategies for implementing modeling in their classrooms, I will be examining the following research questions: (1) What aspects of modeling, if any, do teachers explicitly attend to in their current classroom instruction and assessment? (2) How does modeling-focused professional development and implementation of an educative, modeling-based performance task influence teachers’ knowledge of modeling? (3) In what ways does modeling-focused professional development and implementation of an educative, modeling-based performance task shape teachers’ pedagogical motivation for modeling?