Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Reasoning in Elementary School Science

• In Event: Roundtable Session 105
  In Roundtable Session: A Cross-National Exploration of Quality Learning and Reasoning in Elementary Science

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
There has been long standing interest in investigating student reasoning processes in science classrooms. With a global focus on the promotion of scientific literacy as a core science curriculum agenda, there are increasing attempts to focus on higher order, or ‘21st century’ skills. The EQUALPRIME project is investigating the cultural aspects of teachers’ support of reasoning in elementary school classrooms in Taiwan, Australia and Germany. This paper uses complementary analyses to argue the need for a multi-theoretic account (Xu & Clarke 2010) of reasoning in science classrooms, if we are to make valid comparisons and learn useful lessons from these.
2. Theoretical perspectives
Reasoning in science has a long history of theorizing and research, mainly focusing on formal processes such as co-variation (Kuhn 1997), on processes of supporting conceptual change through rational reasoning processes, or more broadly on student epistemologies relating ideas and evidence (Driver et al. 1994). More recently there has been interest in Toulmin’s argumentation framework as a model of reasoning (Simon et al. 2006; Furtak et al. 2010). Such accounts of reasoning are both syllogistic and natural language based. There has been increasing acknowledgement of the importance of informal reasoning processes in science (Reif & Larkin 1991), and model based reasoning (Lehrer & Schauble 2006). From a pragmatist, semiotic perspective (Gooding 2004; Latour 1999; Peirce 1931-58), reasoning in science involves a complex process of alignment of multiple representational resources involving perception, visualization and modeling to develop claims about real world referents. We will argue in the paper the need for a multi-theoretic account of reasoning, if we are to fairly capture reasoning processes in classrooms.
3. Methods and data sources
In EQUALPRIME, video capture of classroom sequences includes the teacher and whole class interactions as well as small group interactions. In the paper we analyse selected sequences from Taiwanese and Australian classrooms to investigate teacher support of student reasoning from several theoretical perspectives. The analytical approaches include coding, using Studiocode software, of teacher and student exchanges, both verbal and gestural, ethnographic analysis of discourse, analysis of student artifacts, and teacher and student stimulated recall interviews.
4. Results
The results demonstrate how these different perspectives on support of student reasoning in science classrooms provide different insights into the teaching and learning processes in these classrooms. We argue that in such complex environments, multi-theoretic analyses are essential if we are to capture the different ways student reasoning is supported across different classroom cultures. The analysis shows that support for student reasoning is invested not simply in the immediate teacher-student verbal interactions, but is distributed across a range of material and symbolic artifacts, and invested also in the nature of tasks and in the broader structures of lesson sequences.
5. Significance
The paper will contribute to a more complex understanding of the nature and support of reasoning in science classrooms, of the methodological complexities in comparing classrooms across different teachers and different cultures, and of the value of multi-theoretic approaches to understanding classroom processes.

Authors

• Russell W. Tytler, Deakin University

• Peter Hubber, Deakin University

• Gail D. Chittleborough, Deakin University