Supporting the adoption of climate change-related curricular resources among secondary teachers

Friday 3:00pm-4:00pm
Poster Session Part of Friday Poster Session

Authors

Silvia Jessica Mostacedo Marasovic, The University of Texas at Arlington
Amanda Olsen, The University of Texas at Arlington
Cory Forbes, The University of Texas at Arlington
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize the importance of climate education and the epistemology of science among high school students. Teachers play an important role in supporting students' climate literacy. However, they have limited access to instructional resources that provide standards-based curriculum on Global Climate Change and Earth's climate. Also, identifying and developing these resources involve the use of limited resources (i.e. time). In response, in 2022, we implemented a one-week Professional Development Program (PDP) for teachers at a national level to learn about two standards-based climate change-related curricula for high school students which focus on i) the use of a global climate model for students, [the tool] and ii) carbon capture and sequestration strategies. Overall, N = 55 teachers from various states participated in the PDP, which provided opportunities for cross-fertilization between climate scientists and science educators. The study aims to understand teachers' interest in adopting these resources in their own classrooms. The research questions are i) what criteria do teachers employ to evaluate the adoption decisions of climate-related curricula? and ii) what group factors may influence teachers' assessment of these resources? We used mixed methods to analyze results from a pre-post survey, four online discussions, and participants' Unit Plan Tasks. Overall, the results of the study showed that curricula's affordances included i) versatility and opportunities for inquiry-based learning, ii) supports for the understanding of vocabulary, concepts and processes, and iii) epistemic outcomes related to research and modelling practices. Teachers with an alternative or provisional certification had lower ratings of feasibility of the curricula compared to teachers with a regular teaching certification. Teachers who were ages 40-49 had higher ratings on the system support scale compared to teachers who were 20-29 years old. These results can support the implementation of other programs to support teachers' practice.