Leveraging Each Student's Everyday Language to Co-Design Inclusive Science Learning Environment

• In Event: Creating Equitable Learning Environments to Support Students of Diverse Backgrounds and Needs

Abstract

This study reports on a Research-Practice-Partnership that encourages students from underrepresented communities to communicate their ideas using everyday language. The partners, including a middle school science teacher, co-design and refine a web-based learning environment to support connections between students’ sociolinguistic backgrounds and science discourse. The partners use an online Curriculum Visualizer to communicate their instructional ideas and connect them to the pedagogy governing the curriculum design. We analyze how the co-designed environment enables students to make sense of science by building on their everyday language. The co-designed learning environment gives each student a voice to explain their ideas. The teacher found that the everyday language approach empowered his students to develop scientific explanations and take ownership in science.

Authors

• Rui Li, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Marcia Linn, University of California - Berkeley