Modeling & Dialogic Argumentation in an Urban High School Biology Classroom

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Equitable Participation and Discourse in Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This study examines how a national expert in modeling instruction engages with high school students dialogically to teach what counts as scientific evidence in an ecology unit. A multi-layered approach to microethnographic discourse analysis was conducted on classroom conversations, materials, student writing, and interviews with students and teachers during the academic unit. This study provides ‘telling case’ (Mitchell, 1984) of dialogic scientific argumentation from a high school honors biology teacher using modeling instruction in 3 key events. Ms. Fitzgerald utilized patterns that supported students’ epistemic agency including inviting and revoicing student answers, asking follow-up questions, and recognizing student ideas despite moments where the relevance was not clear.

Author

• Katherine Michelle St. Clair Misar, SUNY - College at New Paltz