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1. Improving Teacher Noticing of Students’ Science Ideas with a Dashboard

   Billings, Kelly; Gerard, Libby; Linn, Marcia C. (January 2021, Computersupported collaborative learning)

   de Vries, E.; Hod, Y.; Ahn, J. (Ed.)

   We explore how a Teacher Action Planner (TAP) that synthesizes student ideas impacts teacher noticing. The TAP uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to detect student ideas in written explanations. We compared teacher noticing while using the TAP to noticing when reviewing student explanations. The TAP helped teachers deepen their analysis of student ideas. We did not see any impact on immediate instructional practice. We propose redesigns to the TAP to better connect noticing to instruction. 

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2. A Comparison of Responsive and General Guidance to Promote Learning in an Online Science Dialog

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121383  

   Gerard, Libby; Linn, Marcia C; Holtmann, Marlen (December 2024, Education Sciences)

   Students benefit from dialogs about their explanations of complex scientific phenomena, and middle school science teachers cannot realistically provide all the guidance they need. We study ways to extend generative teacher–student dialogs to more students by using AI tools. We compare Responsive web-based dialogs to General web-based dialogs by evaluating the ideas students add and the quality of their revised explanations. We designed the General guidance to motivate and encourage students to revise their explanations, similar to how an experienced classroom teacher might instruct the class. We designed the Responsive guidance to emulate a student–teacher dialog, based on studies of experienced teachers guiding individual students. The analyses comparing the Responsive and the General condition are based on a randomized assignment of a total sample of 507 pre-college students. These students were taught by five different teachers in four schools. A significantly higher proportion of students added new accurate ideas in the Responsive condition compared to the General condition during the dialog. This research shows that by using NLP to identify ideas and assign guidance, students can broaden and refine their ideas. Responsive guidance, inspired by how experienced teachers guide individual students, is more valuable than General guidance. 

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3. Using evidence of student thinking as resources in a digital collaborative platform

   Park, Sunyoung; Edson, Alden J (August 2024, Mathematics education research and practice)

   Learning mathematics in a student-centered, problem-based classroom requires students to develop mathematical understanding and reasoning collaboratively with others. Despite its critical role in students’ collaborative learning in groups and classrooms, evidence of student thinking has rarely been perceived and utilized as a resource for planning and teaching. This is in part because teachers have limited access to student work in paper-and-pencil classrooms. As an alternative approach to making student thinking visible and accessible, a digital collaborative platform embedded with a problem-based middle school mathematics curriculum is developed through an ongoing design-based research project (Edson & Phillips, 2021). Drawing from a subset of data collected for the larger research project, we investigated how students generated mathematical inscriptions during small group work, and how teachers used evidence of students’ solution strategies inscribed on student digital workspaces. Findings show that digital flexibility and mobility allowed students to easily explore different strategies and focus on developing mathematical big ideas, and teachers to foreground student thinking when facilitating whole-class discussions and planning for the next lesson. This study provides insights into understanding mathematics teachers’ interactions with digital curriculum resources in the pursuit of students’ meaningful engagement in making sense of mathematical ideas. 

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4. Critical thinking during science investigations: what do practicing teachers value and observe?

   https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2023.2191186  

   Butcher, Kirsten R.; Hudson, Michelle; Lane, McKenna; Larson, Madlyn (August 2023, Teachers and Teaching)

   This paper examines how practicing teachers approach and evaluate students’ critical thinking processes in science, using the implementation of an online, inquiry-based investigation in middle school classrooms as the context for teachers’ observations. Feedback and ratings from three samples of science teachers were analysed to determine how they valued and evaluated component processes of students’ critical thinking and how such processes were related to their instructional approaches and student outcomes. Drawing from an integrated view of teacher practice, results suggested that practicing science teachers readily observed and valued critical thinking processes that aligned to goal intentions focused on domain content and successful student thinking. These processes often manifested as components of effective scientific reasoning—for example, gathering evidence, analysing data, evaluating ideas, and developing strong arguments. However, teachers also expressed avoidance intentions related to student confusion and uncertainty before and after inquiry-based investigations designed for critical thinking. These findings highlight a potential disconnect between the benefits of productive student struggle for critical thinking as endorsed in the research on learning and science education and the meaning that teachers ascribe to such struggle as they seek to align their instructional practices to classroom challenges. 

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5. The Classroom‐Research‐Mentoring Framework: A lens for understanding science practice‐based instruction

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21835  

   Cooper, Alexandra C.; Bolger, Molly S. (January 2023, Science Education)

   Abstract Reformed science curricula provide opportunities for students to engage with authentic science practices. However, teacher implementation of such curricula requires teachers to consider their role in the classroom, including realigning instructional decisions with the epistemic aims of science. Guiding newcomers in science can take place in settings ranging from the classroom to the undergraduate research laboratory. We suggest thinking about the potential intersections of guiding students across these contexts is important. We describe the Classroom‐Research‐Mentoring (CRM) Framework as a novel lens for examining science practice‐based instruction. We present a comparative case study of two teachers as they instruct undergraduate students in a model‐based inquiry laboratory. We analyzed stimulated‐recall episodes uncovering how these teachers interacted with their students and the rationale behind their instructional choices. Through the application of the CRM Framework, we revealed ways teachers can have instructional goals that align with those of a research mentor. For example, our teachers had the goals of “creating an inclusive environment open to student ideas,” “acknowledging students as scientists,” and “focusing students on skills and ideas needed to solve biological problems.” We suggest three functions of research mentoring that translate across the classroom and research laboratory settings: (1) build a shared understanding of epistemic aims, (2) support learners in the productive use of science practices, and (3) motivate learner engagement in science practices. 

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