Challenging Teacher Assumptions About Marginalized Students' Capacity to Participate in Dialogic Pedagogies in Science

• In Event: 53.026 - Broadening Opportunities for Classroom Learning With Dialogic Pedagogies

Abstract

Many educators assume that “dialogic pedagogy” is inherently more equitable and inclusive than traditional forms of classroom discourse, but in a study of 143 classrooms, Kelly (2007) shows that dialogic discourse does not result in greater participation from students who are members of groups that are marginalized due to SES, ethnicity, or other factors. One possible obstacle to their participation is teacher assumptions about these students’ capacities for academically productive talk. We examine an approach to this problem in the context of an innovative form of professional development, the Next Generation Science Exemplar Program (NGSX). NGSX was designed to develop, at scale, the capacity of K-12 science teachers to facilitate knowledge-building discussions, which are essential to the vision of science education put forth in the NRC Frameworks and Next Generation Science Standards. NGSX study groups, which are guided by a web-based platform and trained facilitators, meet for approximately 30 hours of face-to-face study.

To address the challenge of unexamined teacher assumptions about students’ ability to contribute to discussion, NGSX participants do a “descriptive review” using a three-minute video featuring a science discussion among 4th-grade students in a high-needs school. A descriptive review is a carefully structured way to engage a group in a nonjudgmental, rich description of a child/youth’s work and thinking, which leads to new insights for classroom practice and student support (Himley & Carini, 2000). In this review, the teachers are asked to focus on the comment of one student in the video, an African American boy named Mathais.

For this study, we analyze videos of different enactments of this activity. We look specifically at what teachers say about Mathais’s comment during and after the descriptive review. We also examine over 1000 individual reflections about the activity that were uploaded to the NGSX website by participating teachers.

A preliminary analysis of the videos and posts shows that many teachers experience a change in their thinking about Mathais’s comment. Their initial thinking is that Mathais is confused or does not understand the concepts at hand in the classroom experiment. After the descriptive review, however, these teachers come to see that Mathais actually does understand, and that he has used cogent reasoning and has made some important scientific points.

Our work with teachers over the years suggests that there are a number who believe that not all students are suited for learning through classroom discussion. Such beliefs are problematic given the larger consensus among policymakers, researchers, and teacher organizations that classroom talk is critical to student learning at all levels and in all content areas. This study highlights the potential of one approach to challenge these problematic teacher assumptions.

Authors

• Leslie Duhaylongsod, Salem State University

• Sarah Michaels, Clark University

• Catherine O'Connor, Boston University

• Jie Park, Clark University

• Renee A. Affolter, University of Massachusetts - Amherst