Reimagining communities of practice in elementary science

• In Event: Transforming Early Science Teaching Through Professional Learning

Abstract

We co-designed a four-week entomology unit with a second-grade teacher, an entomologist, and his research team. This collaboration could be framed as a Community of Practice (COP); however, while COPs communities of practice offer students a learning pathway based on what adults deem important, or a version of science Rahm et al. (2003) refer to as “pre-authenticated science”, this can also bound participation in ways that exclude student ways of knowing and ways of doing science beyond the particular old-timer’s experience. We found that while adults shared an overall goal of engaging students in “real” science, interactions between adults and students did not consistently support students’ legitimate participation in a shared community of science practice.

Authors

• Sinead C. Brien, University of South Carolina - Upstate

• David Stroupe, University of Utah