Exploring Opportunities for Students' Sense-Making and Rigor at the Instructional Core

• In Event: English Learners and Equity in Science Education

Abstract

Recent instructional reforms in science education aim to address low academic rigor observed in many science classrooms, which is a persistent educational problem. Understanding the instructional factors that maintain students’ high-level thinking and sensemaking can promote rigorous instruction. To that end, prior research tends to foreground either the curriculum or teachers’ practices. We, however, propose a more comprehensive view of teaching. By examining the implementation of the same lesson across three different classrooms, our analysis revealed how the interaction of teachers’ practices, students’ intellectual engagement, and a cognitively demanding task together support rigorous instruction. Our analysis also shed light on the factors that support maintaining students’ high-level thinking and sensemaking throughout the trajectory of a science lesson.

Authors

• Miray Tekkumru-Kisa, Florida State University

• Ozlem Akcil Okan, Florida State University

• Zahid Kisa, Florida State University