Learning Progressions

Learning Progressions  What are learning progressions? LEARNING PROGRESSIONS (LP’S), PROGRESS MAPS, DEVELOPMENTAL  CONTINUUMS, AND LEARNING TRAJECTORIES ARE ALL TERMS THAT HAVE BEEN  USED IN LITERATURE OVER THE PAST DECADE. WHILE MANY VARIATIONS ON  THE DEFINITION EXIST, THE CONCEPT GENERALLY REFERS  TO RESEARCH- BASED, DESCRIPTIVE CONTINUUMS  OF HOW STUDENTS DEVELOP AND  DEMONSTRATE  DEEPER, BROADER , AND  MORE SOPHISTICATED  UNDERSTANDINGS  OF THE  BIG IDEAS !! (HESS, 2014) Why LEARNING PROGRESSIONS? “Educators often criticize American k-12 sciences education as a  mile  wide and an inch deep” (Duncan, 2013). Duncan continues by stating, “Students learn about different topics in science – the water cycle one year, cell mitosis the next – but they’re often not connected to one another or to anything students can see, feel or  Experience for themselve...