Learning Progression-Based Design: Advancing the Synergetic Development of Energy Understanding and Scientific Explanation

The "Integrated Development of Key Competences" has been identified as the core idea in education to face competition in the 21st century. Similarly, reform efforts in science education emphasize the importance of integrating scientific practices and disciplinary core ideas. The learning progression (LP) is viewed as a robust tool to facilitate this integrated development. In this study, we integrated learning progressions of energy understanding and scientific explanation into an LP-based intervention to facilitate the instructional design of a middle school energy unit. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 3 teachers and their 184 students to examine the effects of the LP-based intervention on teacher instructional actions and student learning outcomes when compared to traditional instruction. Synthesizing video analysis and pre/posttests, the following results were obtained. (1) LP-based intervention influenced the treatment group's instructions. (2) The performance of both the treatment and comparison groups of students improved, but students in the treatment group demonstrated a better understanding of energy and were more competent in constructing scientific explanation. The article concludes by discussing implications for the future curriculum design and professional development of teachers.