Journal of Research in Science Teaching最新文献

Ideologies of language and race are deeply connected in the United States. Language practices associated with racially marginalized communities, such as African American Language (AAL) or Spanglish, are often heavily stigmatized. Such stigma is not grounded in empirical research on language, but rather in “raciolinguistic ideologies” that reproduce white supremacy and oppression in teacher education and in US classrooms—including science classrooms. Science education need not be this way, however. Translanguaging pedagogies can create space for students to use any and all types of languaging practices to engage in scientific sensemaking. Implementing translanguaging pedagogies to support scientific sensemaking will require science teachers to develop inclusive ideologies of language—not only the knowledge that multiple varieties of language are valid tools for sensemaking, but also the inclination and ability to formatively assess student thinking even when that thinking is not couched in canonical “science language.” In the present manuscript, we explore the relationships among teachers' language ideologies, their racial ideologies, their knowledge of language as an epistemic tool for teaching science, their self-reported assessment practices, and their actual responses to several different samples of student science writing—including a writing sample that includes an oft-stigmatized feature of African American Language. We show that teachers with more language-inclusive ideologies—that is, those who take a translanguaging stance, and thus value the use of AAL in classrooms—appear to be better at formatively assessing and responding to student science writing compared to teachers with more language-exclusive ideologies. We also show that seemingly race-neutral ideologies of language are in fact strongly associated with oppressive ideologies of race, and that these language ideologies predict teachers' science formative assessment practices independently of existing measures of pedagogical knowledge. We discuss implications for science teaching, teacher education, and science education research.

The purpose of this study was to explore translanguaging space as a transformative third space, where alternative and competing discourses are celebrated and where science learning and the development of science's discourse and epistemic practices expand across overlapping boundaries (e.g., home, school, and community). The study focused on Syrian refugee youth adapting to learning science in English in the Lebanese multilingual educational system that esteems international languages (English or French) over Arabic. Our research questions included: (1) What translanguaging practices and functions emerge during a linguistically responsive life science unit designed for refugee multilingual learners? (2) How does a translanguaging space act as a third space for refugee learners to engage in meaning-making and science practices and discourse around the topic of “respiration”? The study utilized a qualitative instrumental case-study approach to generate data around refugee learners' languaging practices and their development of science understandings, practices, and discourse. We also engaged in participatory methodologies that challenge boundaries between researchers and participants. The data sources were 22 Zoom recordings, students' work, and participant-generated feedback. Thematic analysis was used to analyze transcripts and students' work while adhering to trustworthiness criteria. Our findings center translanguaging as a justice-oriented pedagogy that enables a productive and “inviting” third space for refugee multilingual learners to make meaning of phenomena by bringing together and extending their semiotic and epistemic repertoires. Serving multi-tiered functions, translanguaging fostered dialogic connections that affirmed students' “outside” social spaces as valuable resources for meaning-making in science classrooms. The implications discuss design features that support a fluid and purposeful translanguaging third space for asset-oriented science learning.

Equity-focused calls for elementary education reform recognize the importance of student and teacher translanguaging, yet nuances of how this process unfolds in early childhood science is an underexplored area. This study examines young plurilingual children's participation in science investigations, with a view toward understanding how open-ended pedagogical structures supported their communication and engagement as related to science learning. We examine the work of 4- to 6-year-olds as they participated in a 3-week unit exploring worms and draw upon translanguaging theoretical perspectives to interpretively analyze their interactions in science. Situated in the multilingual national context of Luxembourg, the study examines the interactions of these plurilingual children and their teacher as they investigated worms in varied open-ended pedagogical structures. Schools are trilingual in Luxembourg, yet approximately half of the students in the country's elementary schools do not come to school with proficiency in any of the three languages of instruction. Issues of equity in schooling are thus heavily bound in languages. The robust dataset incorporating video data were examined using multimodal interaction analysis, and three vignettes zoom in on children's actions, utterances, and materials in open-ended science learning spaces, providing rich examples of classroom structures that support meaningful translanguaging through students' agentic science communication. Young students' communication and science engagement are inseparable, and this study shows that these intertwine through translanguaging, in a process which is emergent when children are able to agentically draw upon diverse resources to make meanings.

This article explores the challenges of enacting reform-oriented curriculum in science classrooms. We use the concept of figured worlds to analyze a case study of an eighth-grade science class where the teacher reported that the students were resistant to changes she was trying to make. By examining stimulated recall interviews with the teacher (including the associated classroom episodes) and post-unit interviews with a subset of the students, we found that the students and the teacher constructed different figured worlds about the science learning in the classroom. These differences centered on the goals that students and teachers had for the class and the roles of the teacher and students in the learning environment. Specifically, we found that there was a lack of alignment around how students and the teacher viewed the purpose of student agency and collaboration and therefore they had different ideas about how they should interact with one another in the classroom. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for science education. We believe that the concept of figured worlds allows researchers and teachers to better understand the challenges of implementing reform-oriented practices in science classrooms. This understanding can help teachers and professional development providers to create strategies for bridging the gap between different figured worlds and creating more collaborative and productive learning environments for all students.

Grappling with uncertainty is an essential element of students' science learning and sense-making processes, yet literature is limited regarding how teachers can facilitate and use student scientific uncertainty as a pedagogical resource in their classrooms. Furthermore, progress on pedagogical practice depends on both the ability to notice one's perceptions and engage in opportunities to experience and reflect on new instructional approaches. To date, there are few professional development experiences explored in literature that explicitly aim to enhance teachers' awareness and pedagogical practice regarding the use and facilitation of student scientific uncertainty. As such, this qualitative study follows a group of 11 middle school science teachers before and after participating in a week-long practice-based professional development (P-BPD) specifically designed to foster teachers' ability to use student uncertainty as a pedagogical resource. Interviews were conducted and analyzed prior to the P-BPD, immediately after the P-BPD, and the year following to measure shifts in perceptions over time. Additionally, classroom practice was observed both before and the year following the P-BPD. Overall, we found that teachers' awareness of how to use student scientific uncertainty grew both in their expressed perceptions and in their observed classroom enactment. After engaging in the P-BPD, many teachers expressed an enhanced awareness of the productive potential uncertainty can have, as well as increased understanding of potential sources and responses to student uncertainty. Additionally, in the post-implementation observations, most of the teachers demonstrated more diverse use of uncertainty navigation strategies, intentionally raising, maintaining, and reducing scientific uncertainty more often. Teachers were observed using student ideas and uncertainties to drive the trajectory of their lessons more consistently. Notably, we report counterexamples for teachers who demonstrated less or no shifts in perceptions or practice. Furthermore, teachers explicitly identified experiences from the P-BPD that fostered shifts in both their perceptions and practice.

Current science education reform efforts have identified sensemaking as an important goal of science education, and science education researchers have studied what constitutes the sensemaking process in the science classroom. Because the studies of sensemaking are loosely linked to those of scientific reasoning, however, they have provided little practical insight into how students can make scientific sense, rather than any sense, of natural phenomena. Therefore, in this position paper, we discuss the close relationship between sensemaking and abduction. Sensemaking refers to a prolonged process of resolving a gap or inconsistency in current knowledge and understanding by constructing an explanation of a phenomenon. Abduction is a form of scientific reasoning to generate explanatory hypotheses about the evidence embedded in a phenomenon based on available resources. Abduction can play a crucial role in sensemaking by providing a mechanism for generating a plausible explanation of a target phenomenon and should be adapted for science teaching and learning for students' sensemaking through engagement in science practices. In particular, to develop scientific sensemaking in students, the teacher should help students identify critical evidence, provide students with critical resources, and encourage students to use the method of multiple working hypotheses, so that the students can construct scientifically sound and valid explanations of natural phenomena. It is suggested that further research explore and collect exemplary cases of science teachers effectively supporting students to achieve scientific sensemaking through abduction.

A systematic literature review across multiple scientific disciplines was conducted to explore students' understanding of atomic structure, focusing on students' ACs. A total of 112 publications between 1972 and 2023 were selected for the study. Within the selected body of literature, 851 instances of ACs were distributed across students ranging from third grade to graduate-level physical chemistry. As students' atomic structure understanding becomes more sophisticated, multiple intermediate atomic structure models were described in the path from a pre-atom understanding of the composition of matter to a quantitative understanding of the atom's quantum-mechanical characteristics. A series of construct maps were created for each intermediate atomic structure model, organizing students' ACs in a sophistication hierarchy, and using threshold concepts as capstones. Each construct map level is described and selected ACs that exemplify each construct map sublevel of understanding are discussed. The series of construct maps encompass a model of student understanding to diagnose students' level of understanding of atomic structure. This work intends to highlight students' different levels of understanding for the structure of the atom, with the assumption that student knowledge can deepen in sophistication from students' current knowledge. This work opens the possibility of designing an instrument to assess students' understanding of atomic structure using an ordered multiple-choice approach.

Student engagement is widely considered to be a multidimensional construct consisting of behavioral, cognitive, and affective components. Recent research has examined student engagement in science learning contexts using holistic approaches that account for multidimensionality through the identification of engagement profiles. However, it is not yet clear whether identified science engagement profiles are consistent across different samples, different learning environments, or different modes of measurement. Using data from three extant datasets involving middle- and high-school aged youth, we explored the consistency of students' situational engagement profiles across science learning environments (formal and informal) and modes of measurement (experience sampling and end-of-class reports). Results from latent profile analyses of students' behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement identified four common profiles across the three datasets, though each dataset had its own unique profile solution (ranging from five to seven profiles). Consistent profiles across the three datasets included universally low, moderate, recreational, and full engagement. Three additional engagement profiles were identified (rational, purposeful, and busy engagement), though they emerged inconsistently across the samples. Findings speak to the applicability of conceptual frameworks of engagement to science learning contexts. Results are discussed considering environmental (formal vs. informal learning environments) and methodological considerations (experience sampling vs. end of class report).

Participation in citizen science, a research approach in which nonscientists take part in performing research, is a growing practice in schools. A main premise in school-based citizen science is that through their participation, students and teachers make meaningful contributions to the advancement of science. However, such initiatives may encounter difficulties in drawing on students' and teachers' knowledge and incorporating their voice in research processes and outcomes, partly due to established knowledge hierarchies in both science and schools. This research theoretically examines misuses of students' and teachers' knowledge in school-based citizen science that can be defined as an epistemic injustice. This term describes wrongful evaluations and considerations of people's knowledge or perspectives. Based on existing theoretical work on epistemic injustice, we first map out epistemic justifications for public participation in science and discuss deficiencies in current forms of citizen science that lead to the perseverance of epistemic injustice. Then, we identify and characterize four forms through which epistemic injustice may be manifested in school-based citizen science. Our theoretical analysis is complemented by illustrative examples from citizen science projects enacted in schools, demonstrating cases where epistemic injustice toward students and teachers was either instigated or mitigated. We discuss implications toward educational goals and the design of school-based citizen science, suggesting that epistemic injustice can be reduced or avoided by delegating authorities to schools, maximizing teacher and student agency, and leveraging schools' community connections. Overall, this research establishes theoretical grounds for examinations of epistemic injustice in school-based citizen science.