Student Participation in Ambitious Science Classrooms

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Examining Engagement in Science Across People, Places, and Time

Abstract

This study examined student participation in the classrooms of five beginning secondary science teachers for one school year. To varying degrees, the participants attempted to enact ambitious practice, a framework for instruction focused on providing students with opportunities to engage in science-as-practice. The main findings are: 1) The negotiation between teachers and students about “what counted” as science ideas influenced both the percentage of students sharing ideas on the public plane of the classroom, and the number of science ideas initiated and kept in play; 2) The teacher played a key role in assigning value to ideas over time. Using their instructional authority, participants positioned some ideas as important by making specific discursive moves.

Author

• David Stroupe, Michigan State University