What Is Right With the Wrong Answer? How Teacher Language Ideology Impacts Science Teaching

• In Event: 30.033 - Teaching and Learning Science

Abstract

As teachers evaluate students’ responses, the belief system they use to make sense of students’ work becomes critical. This focus group interview study (n=25) of high school science teachers examined teachers’ language ideology in science. Teachers were asked to evaluate the accuracy of students work by watching videos of lessons and written samples of students’ work. We coded teachers’ responses into two prominent categories—Binary Thinking and Spectrum Thinking. When using Binary Thinking teachers viewed language and concepts as either completely correct or incorrect. When using Spectrum Thinking teachers viewed components of language and concepts as being partially correct. We found that teacher used each approach inconsistently. We discovered that teachers used both models inconsistently and influenced each other.

Authors

• Bryan A. Brown, Stanford University

• Catherine Lemmi, California State University - Chico

• Andrew J. Wild, Stanford University

• Lynne Zummo, Stanford University

• Quentin Sedlacek, Stanford University