Using Teacher Dashboards to Customize Lesson Plans for a Problem-Based, Middle School STEM Curriculum

Abstract

Keeping K-12 teachers engaged during students’ learning and problem solving in technology-enhanced, integrated problem-based learning (PBL) has been shown to support deeper student involvement, and, therefore, better success learning difficult science, computing, and engineering concepts and practices. However, students’ learning processes and corresponding difficulties are not easily noticed by teachers as students learn from these environments as processes are captured through mouse clicks, drag and drop actions, and other low-level activities. As such, teachers find it difficult to set up meaningful interactions with students while also maintaining the focus on student-centered learning. Little research has examined dashboard-supported responsive teaching practices for K-12 PBL. This study examined 8 teachers as they used a co-designed teacher dashboard to assess and respond to students’ learning and strategies during an integrated, PBL STEM curriculum. Teachers completed a series of 5 “planning period simulations” leveraging the dashboard and think-aloud protocols were implemented, supported by semi-structured interview questions, to enable the teachers to verbalize their thought and evaluation processes. Content analysis and epistemic network analysis were conducted to analyze the simulations. Understanding how teachers use dashboards to support evidence-based teaching practices during technology-enhanced curricula is critical for improving teacher support and preparation.