Teachers' Responsiveness and Other Conditions That Support Rigorous Whole-Class Sense-Making in Elementary Science Classrooms

• In Event: Science Sense-Making in Elementary Classrooms: Supporting Teachers to Support Students

Abstract

Purpose
This study examines and extends what we know about how upper elementary teachers’ responsiveness towards students’ ideas and use of supportive conditions promote rigorous whole-class sensemaking discussions in elementary science classrooms.

Framework
For students to make collective progress on their ideas, teachers must know how to: facilitate making ideas accessible to others, treat student ideas as worthy of inquiry, manage uncertainty, and provide opportunities for students to work with and on their ideas together through discursive interactions (Brown & Campione, 1996; Engle & Conant, 2002; Michaels, O’Connor, & Resnick, 2008; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006; Stroupe, 2014; Warren & Rosebery, 1993, Windschitl & Barton, 2016). Teaching that accommodates this kind of collective sensemaking uses students’ ideas, questions, and experiences to stimulate sense-making conversations (Robertson, Scherr, & Hammer, 2016). This study uses a discourse framework for responsiveness which features two pathways-- (1) recognition of ideas or (2) being responsive to ideas--which seem consequential to the emergent rigor during an unfolding discursive episode (Authors, 2016).

Methods & Data
In this qualitative, multi-case study (Merriam, 2009), I observed and recorded science lessons in three upper elementary classrooms at three schools over one school year. Following video analysis recommendations (Derry et al, 2010), I selected lessons where teachers indicated they intended to facilitate whole-class sensemaking. Within these 30 lessons, I identified and transcribed 127 whole-class discussion episodes coding each for rigor, how ideas were treated, and five supportive conditions plus three additional codes that emerged during the analysis. Finally, I developed a visual representation of each lesson which revealed patterns showing when teachers’ responsiveness to students’ resources worked in combination with other supportive conditions to foster rigorous whole-class sensemaking.

Results
All three upper elementary teachers consistently engaged students in higher rigor talk—over half of their episodes were medium or high rigor. These higher rigor whole-class discursive episodes were associated with the teacher’s use of multiple conditions, often four or more in combination, including specific talk moves, scaffolds for idea development, and scaffolds for using language to communicate in particular ways. In looking at the conditions used by each teacher in low rigor episodes, their combinations were similar, yet for higher rigor episodes, the combinations employed by each teacher varied. This implies that it is not a particular condition itself but employing them in combination that is supportive of higher rigor. Additionally, teachers’ elevation of specific student ideas as a discussion focus and explicitly addressing how to use language appeared to be consequential to episode rigor.

Significance
Results from this study help us understand how elementary teachers mediate rigorous and responsive episodes of whole-class talk to support elementary students’ sensemaking (see Authors, 2016). Additionally, this study corroborates conclusions from prior studies about the supportive conditions for rigorous talk and provides insights into how “everyday” (non-content expert, non-coach) elementary teachers, ranging in experience from novice to veteran, can support high levels of rigor in whole-class sensemaking discussions.

Author

• Carolyn Colley, Renton Public Schools