UTILIZING THE TEAM EFFECTIVENESS FRAMEWORK TO EXAMINE HOW SCIENCE EDUCATION CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT GROUPS WORK TO CREATE TECHNOLOGY-INFUSED CURRICULUM

Abstract

Today, school districts are challenged to create technology-infused science curricula in order to improve the education of our Twenty-first Century workforce. School districts assemble science education curriculum development groups to rise to the challenge. At times, school districts also collaborate with researchers and form groups that include researchers, classroom teachers, and school district administrators. In contrast to studies that focus on technology-infused science curriculum products and teachers' and students' use of those products, this multiple case study examined how three science education curriculum development groups worked to create technology-infused science curricula. The shift in focus on the process of how teachers and researchers collaborated to create curricula products stemmed from limited research that described tensions between teachers and researchers. I utilized the Team Effectiveness Framework, a framework previously employed by government agencies, private businesses, and military operations, to further explore how tensions emerged during the development of technology-infused science curriculum. The findings revealed that tensions occurred due to how the groups defined technology-infusion, assembled group members, assigned group roles, facilitated dual curriculum audience discussions, addressed multi-level organization norms, and built team cohesion and trust. Within each case, tensions shaped the resultant science curriculum artifacts. Thus, the study highlights ways in which technology was infused into science curriculum and how diverse expertise of team members, multi-level norm discussions, and local technology resources shaped science curricula artifacts.