Mediating Social and Material Scaffolds in a Fifth-Grade Science Classroom

• In Event: Toward a Refined Understanding of Social and Material Scaffolds in STEM Education

Abstract

Objectives
Classrooms can be conceived as highly complex structures where they support “multiple, overlapping zones of proximal development that foster growth through mutual appropriation and negotiated meaning” (Brown et al., 1993: 194). In this paper we report on a redesigned fifth grade science unit, called Micros and Me (Tzou et al., 2007). The curriculum attempts to engage students in classroom science investigations that are focused on the social practices from their informal environments; provide agency in learning in relation to the goals of science education by having students conduct research focused on their interests and/or of their communities; and it leverages the social and material capacities of students in relation to the goals of the unit (Bell et al., in press). In this paper, we focus on the fair-test around hand-washing techniques in the fifth (Fall 2010) enactment of the science unit where we explore (a) what social and material scaffolds help students come to engage in disciplinary practices as they explain biological phenomena, and (b) how scaffolding is distributed, integrated, and multiplied.

Conceptual Framework
We draw from Vygotsky’s (1978) sociohistorical view of development where scaffolding is exemplified in the Zone of Proximal Development concept. Our view of scaffolding aligns with that of Pea (2004), who discusses scaffolding as consisting of two dimensions that support the process of learning: social and technological. The former is concerned with interactive responsiveness that is dependent on the needs of the learner, providing resources that enable the learner to do more than he or she would alone. The latter is concerned with designed artifacts, particularly how features of computer tools and the processes employing them scaffold learning. These two dimensions employed together support the learning process.

Methods
This design study took place in two fifth grade science classrooms at Granite Elementary School in an urban area in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnographic techniques were incorporated into the design to leverage students’ everyday expertise. The data sources came from participant observation using field notes and digital photography of instruction in the science classrooms, video recording, student illustrations, and students’ notebooks.

Findings
Preliminary findings show that one of the teachers drew on a metacognitive approach in order to help her students reach a conclusion about their hand washing experiments. Consequently, during classroom discussions students were able to shift to a “metaconceptual ‘question, generate, and examine alternatives, and evaluate mode’” (NRC, 2007). This approach enabled her students to differentiate between theories, in this case their theoretical ideas and scientific theories, and data by seeking contradictory evidence and eliminating alternative explanations (cf. Kuhn, 1989).

Scholarly Significance
This work has implications for how learning is accomplished or hindered during scientific inquiry practices. Because we see social processes supporting expertise development in students and teachers (Bransford & Schwartz, 2008), we seek to inform how social and material scaffolding in classroom activity systems are mediated and distributed.

Author

• Giovanna Scalone, University of Washington