Reflective Structuration of Sustained Deep Inquiry in a Grade 5 Classroom

• In Event: 52.027 - Fostering Deep Learning in Problem-Solving Contexts Through Effective Design of Learning Environments With Technology Support

Abstract

Based on Giddens’ (1984) social structuration theory, this paper elaborates a reflective structuration framework to understand how long-term inquiry practices are formulated and adapted. In a knowledge building community, learners make intentional contributions to advance collective knowledge of value to the community and develop dynamic collaboration with each other (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003). Their ways of contributing and interacting give rise to, and are further influenced by, the macro-level, collective structures of the community, including its shared goals, ways of doing inquiry and participation. These collective structures, once emerge, take on a social life, being continually reused, discussed, and modified. The purpose of this study is to explore the dynamic process by which a Grade 5 science community co-constructs pragmatic structure of inquiry to support an emergent and progressive trajectory of deep inquiry in a year-long initiative.

This case study was conducted in a Grade 5 classroom with 19 students from upstate New York. The teacher had more than 10 years’ experience teaching fifth graders’ science and one-year collaboration with our team about knowledge building pedagogy and classroom design. The students investigated human body systems with Knowledge Forum (KF) across the whole school year.

To understand the emergence and evolution of the “research cycles”, we conducted qualitative analysis with rich qualitative data, including field notes, classroom videos, pictures of students’ notebooks, artifacts created by students, and student interviews. Analyses of classroom data yielded three main phases involved in the emergence of the research cycles: reflection on individual journey, co-generation and refinement of small group research cycles, and synthesis into the collective research cycle. Analysis of students’ reflective comments about how they used the research cycle indicated two categories: following the cycle and adapting the cycle for their own use (See Fig. 1). Analysis of classroom talks revealed two strategies adopted by the teacher to support the generation and use of the collective cycle: asking metacognitive questions, and monitoring &sharing emergent exemplar practices of inquiry.

Existing approaches to support collaborative inquiry tend to use a structuring mechanism (Reiser, 2004), which simplifies authentic inquiry process by providing students with pre-defined tasks, assigned roles, and a set of established routines, scripts, protocols, or approved procedures to guide their inquiry activities (Fischer, Kollar, Stegmann, & Wecker, 2013; Hmelo-Silver, 2006; Krajcik & Shin, 2014; Lu, Bridges, & Hmelo-Silver, 2014). When students are asked to follow these structures, little space is left for student’s natural curiosity and interest to evolve into an active investigation, examination, and evaluation in a conscious manner, which greatly affects students’ sustained engagement in inquiry (Flum & Kaplan, 2006; Kuhn, 2007). In this study, we are making an effort to contribute to a reflective structuration framework to elaborate how students-directed long-term inquiry could be achieved in an elementary science classroom. Creative knowledge practices require continual adaptation and invention beyond recurrent routines. In this context, members not only regulate their individual and joint actions based on existing structures, but also adapt and create new structures when needed to support their collective work.

Authors

• Dan Tao, University at Albany - SUNY

• Jianwei Zhang, University at Albany - SUNY