Leveraging Modeling Activities to Enact Responsive Teaching Strategies

• In Event: Science Teaching and Learning Across Contexts

Abstract

This study explores how a middle school science teacher, Ms. K, helped her students develop their understanding of kinetic energy (KE) and potential energy (PE) using a responsive teaching approach called guided reflective refinement. During a modeling-based unit on energy conservation, Ms. K helped students articulate and examine their ideas about energy. Students initially associated KE with motion and PE with a state of rest. In response, Ms. K invited them to examine their ideas through the lens of mathematical equations for KE and PE, thus supporting their refinement of thinking. We consider how modeling activities can afford opportunities for responsive teaching and support students in refining their understanding of scientific concepts.

Authors

• Rida Munir, Utah State University

• Hillary Lucille Swanson, Utah State University

• Jared Arnell, Utah State University

• Ravi Sinha, Utah State University

• Idris Solola, Utah State University