Recent instructional reforms in science education aim to change the way students engage in learning in the discipline, as they describe that students are to engage with disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and the practices of science to make sense of phenomena (NRC, 2012). For such sensemaking to become a reality, there is a need to understand the ways in which students' thinking can be maintained throughout the trajectory of science lessons. Past research in this area tends to foreground either the curriculum or teachers' practices. We propose a more comprehensive view of science instruction, one that requires attention to teachers' practice, the instructional task, and students' engagement. In this study, by examining the implementation of the same lesson across three different classrooms, our analysis of classroom videos and artifacts of students' work revealed how the interaction of teachers' practices, students' intellectual engagement, and a cognitively demanding task together support rigorous instruction. Our analyses shed light on their interaction that shapes opportunities for students' thinking and sensemaking throughout the trajectory of a science lesson. The findings provide implications for ways to promote rigorous opportunities for students' learning in science classrooms.
Modifying Scientific Research into Introductory Science Course Lessons Using a 5E Lesson Format: An Active Learning Approach
Science faculty are being asked to
create active learning experiences
that engage students in core
concepts and science practices. This
article describes an approach to
developing active learning lessons
from authentic science research
projects using the 5E lesson format.
Included is a description of the 5Es
and a template for creating a 5E
lesson. A description of the authors’
scientific research and the resulting
5E lesson for an introductory
biology course are provided as
an example of this approach. In
the lesson described, students
collected, analyzed, and interpreted
data to construct explanations
about the potential for evolution
to occur in response to climate
change. This approach supported
students in learning core concepts
and science practices and allowed
the instructors to implement an
active learning environment based
on national science reforms. The
results of this exploratory study and
the rich descriptions of the lesson
design should be used to raise
awareness of one active-learning
approach. Scientists can consider
using this approach in their own
teaching, and science education
researchers can consider this
approach in future comparative
studies across various activelearning
approaches.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1639005
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10127223
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of college science teaching
- Volume:
- 48
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0047-231X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 14-21
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
