Responsive Teaching and Scientific Argumentation: Dialogic Teaching in Three Middle School Classrooms

• In Event: Developing STEM Teacher Practice

Abstract

Despite broad consensus on the value of classroom dialogue for promoting scientific argumentation, tensions have emerged in the literature regarding the degree to which teachers should guide the dialogic process (dialogic stance). We use the lens of responsive teaching (Author, 2020) to examine how one teacher adjusts his instruction to foster dialogue in three middle-school science classrooms. Applying grounded theory to classroom dialogues and teacher interview data, we examine the dynamic interplay of the teacher’s overarching goal and moment-to-moment pedagogical aims to understand shifts in his dialogic stance. Our findings illustrate the value of foregrounding responsiveness to student’s disciplinary thinking when offering guidance to teachers about how to support students in peer-based argumentative dialogue.

Authors

• Mark K. Felton, San José State University

• Daniel M. Levin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Susan De La Paz, University of Maryland

• Cameron Butler, University of Maryland - College Park