Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science (RAES)

Project Overview
naed_084621In the Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science (RAES) project, I investigate elementary teachers’ use of formative assessment strategies for science.  This work began in 2012 with the Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science in Iowa (RAES-Iowa) project, for which I served as Project Director before moving to UNL.  This RAES-Iowa project was funded by the federal Title II A Teacher Quality grant program, which is a part of the No Child Left Behind Act. It involves a partnership between the University of Iowa (UI) Colleges of Education and Engineering, Grant Wood Area Education Agency (GWAEA) and Van Allen Science Teaching Center (VAST), the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California-Berkeley (LHS), and the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER). Over 40 3rd-6th-grade teachers from the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD), Washington Community Schools (WCSD), Clear Creek Amana Community School District (CCACSD), Highland Community School District (HCSD), and St. James School participated in the first two years of the project, which was designed help teachers learn to use Reflective Assessment, a 4-step formative assessment strategy developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science.  Support from the Spencer Foundation allows me to now pursue research around both preservice and inservice elementary teachers’ use of formative assessment for science.  In particular, I explore the impact of teachers’ content knowledge on their use of formative assessment strategies and draw upon Shulman’s (1987) model of pedagogical reasoning to investigate elementary teachers’ use of formative assessment to diagnose students’ thinking and target instruction to students’ learning needs.

  • $477,812 from the Title IIA Improving Teacher Quality State Grant, State of Iowa Board of Regents
  • $39,932 from the Spencer Foundation (Small Grants Program)
  • $25,721 from University of Iowa College of Education

Stay up to date with current news associated with the RAES project here.

Project Publications
Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T., & Flynn, M.L. (2016). Elementary teachers’ use of content knowledge to evaluate students’ thinking in the life sciences. International Journal of Science Education, 38(7), 1077-1099.

Forbes, C.T., Sabel, J.L., & Zangori, L. (2015). Integrating life science content and instructional methods in elementary teacher education. American Biology Teacher, 77(9), 5-11.

Forbes, C.T., Sabel, J., & Biggers, M. (2015). Elementary teachers’ use of formative assessment to support students’ learning about interactions between the hydrosphere and geosphere. Journal of Geoscience Education, 63(3), 210-221.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C.T., & Zangori, L. (2015). Promoting prospective elementary teachers’ learning to use formative assessment for life science instruction. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 26(4), 419-445.

Project Presentations
Sabel, J., Forbes, C., & Zangori, L. (2016, April). Use of structured formative assessment assignments to engage preservice teachers with life science concepts. Paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T. (2015, April). Elementary teachers’ use of life science content knowledge to inform formative assessment instructional decisions. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Chicago, IL.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T., & Zangori, L. (2015, April). Preservice teachers’ use of content knowledge and formative assessment in a life science methods course. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C.T., & Zangori, L. (2015, April). Content knowledge and formative assessment integration in a life sciences methods course for preservice teachers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Chicago, IL.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T., & Zangori, L. (2014, November). Preservice teachers’ use of content knowledge to inform formative assessment strategies in an integrated life sciences methods course. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), Cleveland, OH.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C.T., & Biggers, M. (2014, April). Elementary teachers’ implementation of formative assessment strategies: Supporting students’ learning about water and Earth materials. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Pittsburgh, PA.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C. T., & Zangori, L. (2013, November). Design of an integrated teaching and learning biological sciences course for prospective elementary teachers. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers, Atlanta, GA.

Forbes, C.T. (2013, April). Supporting teachers to attend to students’ ideas in elementary science learning environments: The Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science in Iowa (RAES-Iowa) project.  Invited presentation at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Full Option Science System (FOSS) group.

Forbes, C.T., Long, K J., Kennedy, C.A., Bancroft, J., Soldat, C., Biggers, M., & Sabel, J. (2013, April).  Supporting elementary teachers’ learning to use formative assessment for science: The RAES- Iowa professional development model.   Poster presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.