Modeling is a core practice in science and a central part of scientific literacy. We present theoretical and empirical motivation for a learning progression for scientific modeling that aims to make the practice accessible and meaningful for learners. We define scientific modeling as including the elements of the practice (constructing, using, evaluating, and revising scientific models) and the metaknowledge that guides and motivates the practice (e.g., understanding the nature and purpose of models). Our learning progression for scientific modeling includes two dimensions that combine metaknowledge and elements of practice-scientific models as tools for predicting and explaining, and models change as understanding improves. We describe levels of progress along these two dimensions of our progression and illustrate them with classroom examples from 5th and 6th graders engaged in modeling. Our illustrations indicate that both groups of learners productively engaged in constructing and revising increasingly accurate models that included powerful explanatory mechanisms, and applied these models to make predictions for closely related phenomena. Furthermore, we show how students engaged in modeling practices move along levels of this progression. In particular, students moved from illustrative to explanatory models, and developed increasingly sophisticated views of the explanatory nature of models, shifting from models as correct or incorrect to models as encompassing explanations for multiple aspects of a target phenomenon. They also developed more nuanced reasons to revise models. Finally, we present challenges for learners in modeling practices-such as understanding how constructing a model can aid their own sensemaking, and seeing model building as a way to generate new knowledge rather than represent what they have already learned. ß 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 632-654, 2009 Keywords: scientific modeling; learning progression; scientific practice; student learningResearch-based reforms in science education have emphasized the importance of engaging learners in scientific practices-social interactions, tools, and language that represent the disciplinary norms for how scientific knowledge is constructed, evaluated, and communicated (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007). Involving learners in developing and investigating explanations and models leads to more sophisticated understanding of key models in science, as well as helping learners understand the nature of disciplinary knowledge (e.g., Lehrer & Schauble, 2006). Yet, scientific practices require shifts in traditional classroom norms that involve learners in knowledge building and negotiation (Berland & Reiser, 2009; Jimenenez-Aleixandre, Rodriguez, & Duschl, 2000;Lemke, 1990). For effective participation in scientific practices, teachers and students need support with the practices as well as with the scientific ideas addressed by the practice (Duschl et al., 2007).The MoDeLS project, Modeling Designs for Learning Scien...

ABSTRACT:Modeling is being used in teaching learning science in a number of ways. It will be considered here as a process whereby children of primary school age exercise their capacity of organizing recognizable and manageable forms during their understanding of complex phenomenologies. The aim of this work is to characterize this process in relation to the modeling of properties of and changes in materials. The data are discussed by establishing relationships between the modeling process with three different aspects: the specialized scientific knowledge, the physical manipulation of phenomena, and the interaction among those participating in the class. The results show how 7 -8-year-old students generate a modeling process that leads them to explain the behavior of different materials by using a "model of parts" created ad hoc. This model, built up from some kind of a discrete vision of the material, proves to be coherent for children of this age and evolves by relating the visible continuum with an imagined discontinuum.

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When involving students in authentic scientific practices, such as modeling (opposed to routines in which students tend to be only consumers of scientific knowledge products), it can help them to understand not only central ideas of scientific disciplines, but also to gain epistemological knowledge and experience, so that students understand how to construct and evaluate those ideas. The scientific modeling practices, however, are not common in science classrooms of middle-and upper-level, and are even scarcer in early stages of the compulsory education.This "rarity" is not a coincidence, because this kind of practice requires facing several challenges for both students and teachers. This paper presents some aspects of the research focused on facilitating scientific modeling during different years of school life. A) To illustrate with classroom situations the possibility to integrate ideas of discipline content in scientific modeling in the first educational levels, considering the evolution of this integration on processes that involve students ideas; B) To examine how the current classroom policies influence the development of these practices; and (c) To describe the research elements that contribute to understand how is it possible to enhance the participation of students and teachers in scientific modeling.

El profesorado de ciencias se enfrenta a aulas multiculturales, en las que coexisten la epistemología de las ciencias y las epistemologías tradicionales de las comunidades a las que pertenecen los estudiantes. Nuestro objetivo es apoyar al profesorado a la hora de establecer una relación incluyente entre dichas epistemologías, a través de un conjunto de prácticas interculturales de enseñanza de las ciencias (PIEC). Para diseñar las PIEC retomamos el puente epistemológico (PEp) que describe la relación de inclusión como el reconocimiento, validación y uso equitativo de las diversas epistemologías en el aula. Ponemos a prueba las PIEC. Los resultados muestran que la versión de PEp que el profesor participante llevó a la práctica, a través de las PIEC, es alternativa a lo propuesto. Dicha evidencia nos lleva a rediseñar las PIEC para guiar mejor al profesorado a la hora de planificar e implementar el PEp.

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