The Close Study of Texts, Tasks, and Teacher Enactment in the Context of Project-Based Learning

• In Event: 34.034 - Teacher Instructional Characteristics and Approaches and Their Impacts on Learning Environments

Abstract

This study was conducted in the context of a larger design-based research project investigating the integration of science, English language arts, and mathematics in elementary-grades project-based learning (PBL). This descriptive case study research focused on the design – and one third-grade teacher’s enactment – of focal texts and tasks in one PBL unit of instruction, and is guided by the following research question: How do the design and enactment of texts and tasks support and/or constrain third-graders’ science and literacy learning opportunities in the context of PBL? Findings illustrate how the design of texts and tasks, and the teacher’s enactment, synergistically supported students’ science and literacy learning opportunities, but also identify missed opportunities in the design of the curriculum and its enactment.

Author

• Miranda Fitzgerald, University of North Carolina - Charlotte