Identification, Interpretation—Evaluation, Response: An alternative framework for analyzing teacher discourse in science

Abstract

Although research has come to recognize the importance of studying classroom-based studentteacher discourse in science, the emphasis remains largely on teachers' abilities to ask questions and provide students with feedback, or on students' abilities to ask questions or engage in argumentative discourse. Consequently, little research has focused on the discourse elements relating to teacher-student discourse interactions. In this article, we argue for a shift of research attention toward describing what the teacher is responding to (Identification of student inquiry), the process of deciding how to respond (Interpretation-Evaluation of student inquiry), and how the teacher is responding (Response to student inquiry). We propose a new methodological approach for studying teacher discourse, which involves a framework we developed while analyzing 1,385 minutes of fifth grade, whole-class science conversations covering a 2-year period and facilitated by an experienced science teacher. Then, as a case in point, we applied our framework to the teacher discourse data of the study, aiming to show that the framework can be a useful tool for examining how a teacher supports students' inquiry.

Developing teaching responsiveness to children’s inquiry in science: A case study of professional development for pre-school teachers

“…By teacher responsiveness we refer to teachers' abilities to identify, interpret and evaluate, and respond appropriately to their children's inquiry (Louca, Tzialli & Zacharia, 2012). As a case in point, we provide data from an implementation of this PDP to illustrate how a group of teachers begun to develop their sensitivity towards children's in-class inquiry and build their repertoire of responses.…”

“…By this, it is important to differentiate between children's inquiry (both activity and discourse-based) and non-focused exploratory talk. We define discourse-based inquiry to include not only knowledge claims and ideas, but also children's reasoning and inquiry processes (Chin, 2006) such as children's questions and comments, and children's epistemologies or experiences used to support their ideas or thinking (Louca, Tzialli & Zacharia, 2012).…”

“…Our purpose in this paper is to describe the principles around which we designed a PDP for pre-school in-service teachers in Cyprus, seeking to develop teacher responsiveness to children's inquiry (Scott, 1998;Louca, Tzialli & Zacharia, 2012). By teacher responsiveness we refer to teachers' abilities to identify, interpret and evaluate, and respond appropriately to their children's inquiry (Louca, Tzialli & Zacharia, 2012).…”

“…Secondly, teachers need to monitor children's conversations for elements of inquiry (Louca, Tzialli & Zacharia, 2012) that are valuable, beneficial to learning, and in need of support, and respond to these in whichever form are presented in any classroom situation. This requires that teachers know how classroom-based inquiry looks and how it might be presented (discursively, theoretically, practically -hands on etc).…”

Contribuciones de una intervención didáctica usando cuestiones sociocientíficas para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico

“…Como una contribución importante al desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en la enseñanza de las ciencias, es preciso considerar elementos controversiales que permitan desarrollar habilidades de argumentación y promover la autonomía de los estudiantes (Reis y Galvão, 2004;Louca, Zacharia, y Tzialli, 2012). A pesar de que distintos estudios sobre CSC presentan su fuerte influencia en procesos de argumentación (Acar et al, 2010; Jiménez-Aleixandre y Puig, 2012;) y su contribución al desarrollo de la autonomía de los docentes (Martínez, 2012), es conveniente valorar en su conjunto cómo las CSC influyen en aspectos de pensamiento crítico como la incidencia de la ciencia en aspectos sociales, el cuestionamiento de la información y la asunción de posiciones individuales y colectivas en torno a temas sociocientíficos después de una intervención didáctica con CSC.…”