Enacting classroom inquiry: Theorizing teachers' conceptions of science teaching

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Translating written curricular materials into rich, complex, learning environments is an undertheorized area in science education. This study examines two critical cases of teachers enacting a technology-rich curriculum focused on the development of complex reasoning around biodiversity for fifth graders. Two elements emerged that significantly impact teacher enactment-their conceptions of authenticity (authentic learning/authentic science) and their view of science (descriptive/inferential). The results suggest that disentangling the common conflation of these two elements supports a broader definition of inquiry science teaching that is more sensitive to context and individual teacher enactment.C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 92: 973 -993, 2008

Monitoring outcomes of environmental service provision in low socio-economic indigenous Australia using innovative CyberTracker Technology

“…CyberTracker provides a framework for collection of data on a handheld Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) using words of any language, icons, and images or sounds, making it a versatile data collection tool that can cross cultural and linguistic boundaries. Among many other projects, the software has been used by Indigenous rangers with low numeracy and literacy skills in Africa (Liebenberg 2003) and Australia (Jackson et al 2009), and in the development of scientifi c inquiry processes in primary school children (McDonald and Butler Songer 2008). Its additional versatility lies in its environmental adaptability: from rugged fi eld conditions to indoor automated systems, depending on the type of PDA used.…”

Learning in tandem: professional development for teachers and students as inquirers

“…Similarly the language was used to make a determination as to where on the McDonald and Songer (2008) or Bonnstetter (1998) continuum the teacher's practice lay regarding student inquiry. We also extracted important stories and quotes that provided evidence for judgments along the continuum and scale.…”

“…Planning structures refer to the design of inquiry lessons. While the project did not introduce a particular structure for lessons, it did provide models for planning (Wiggins and McTighe 2005) and for supporting inquiry using the work of Bonnstetter (1998) and McDonald and Songer (2008). Some teachers embraced these planning structures while others critiqued them for not being prescriptive enough.…”

“…Teachers used this model to assess themselves and the inquiry work of others as a way to define the boundaries of the approach. Similarly, McDonald and Songer's (2008) framework provided another visual model but one that emphasized multiple dimensions along a continuum of the authenticity of tasks and the autonomy of students (see Figure 2). While we held these models up to define student inquiry, we intentionally designed a teacher inquiry process where teachers inquired into their own questions (autonomy) about a real situation in their classrooms involving student inquiry (authenticity).…”

“…Inquiry involves both collaborative and individual investigations that engage participants in asking compelling questions, gathering and analyzing evidence to build arguments and, finally, communicating those understandings in public. Inquiry is a complex endeavor, situated along a continuum of decisions about authentic disciplinary tasks and student autonomy (Bonnstetter 1998, McDonald andSonger 2008). As such, professional development to promote inquiry, both with teachers and with students, would be necessarily multi-dimensional, ongoing and complex.…”