More Like this

1. Make or Break Collaborative Disciplinary Engagement in Science: Managing Conceptual Uncertainty in Group Work

   Krishnan, H.; Jaber, L. Z.; Southerland; S. A. (January 2022, National Association of Research in Science Teaching)

   While conceptual uncertainties position students to engage in the disciplinary practices of science in meaningful ways, that engagement is dependent on how students respond to and manage such uncertainties. The current study examines various epistemological, social, and affective dynamics and how they influence the management of conceptual uncertainties in one group of middle school students in a science classroom. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we found that students’ persistence in disciplinary engagement is not only dependent on the presence and recognition of conceptual uncertainties but also on how students take up and manage challenges along epistemological, social, and affective dimensions. Our work can inform educators interested in supporting students to navigate the complex and multidimensional dynamics of collaborative sensemaking in service of promoting disciplinary engagement in science. 

   more » « less
2. Negotiating Tensions in Collaborations and its Role in Disciplinary Engagement in Science

   Krishnan, H.; Jaber, L. J.; Schellinger, J.; Southerland, S. A. (January 2022, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   While recent reforms in science education envision engaging students in doing science as a way to learn science, less is known about how such an engagement can take hold in the classroom. In an effort to address this gap, this study examines the dynamics of students’ disciplinary engagement in small groups in a middle school science classroom. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we conducted a comparative case analysis of three groups of students to examine the dynamics of their engagement along conceptual, epistemological, social, and affective dimensions. Through this analysis, our findings highlight tensions that emerge along these dimensions and the ways in which students negotiate these tensions in ways that support or hinder disciplinary engagement. 

   more » « less
3. Exploring social and cognitive engagement in small groups through a community of learners (CoL) lens

   https://doi.org/10.1039/d3rp00071k  

   Nennig, Hannah T.; States, Nicole E.; Macrie-Shuck, Michael; Fateh, Shaghayegh; Gunes, Zubeyde Demet; Cole, Renee; Rushton, Gregory T.; Shah, Lisa; Talanquer, Vicente (July 2023, Chemistry Education Research and Practice)

   A variety of research studies reveal the advantages of actively engaging students in the learning process through collaborative work in the classroom. However, the complex nature of the learning environment in large college general chemistry courses makes it challenging to identify the different factors that affect students’ cognitive and social engagement while working on in-class tasks. To provide insights into this area, we took a closer look at students’ conversations during in-class activities to characterize typical discourse patterns and expressed chemical thinking in representative student groups in samples collected in five different learning environments across four universities. For this purpose, we adapted and applied a ‘Community of Learners’ (CoL) theoretical perspective to characterize group activity through the analysis of student discourse. Within a CoL perspective, the extent to which a group functions as a community of learners is analyzed along five dimensions including Community of Discourse (CoD), Legitimization of Differences (LoD), Building on Ideas (BoI), Reflective Learning (RL), and Community of Practice (CoP). Our findings make explicit the complexity of analyzing student engagement in large active learning environments where a multitude of variables can affect group work. These include, among others, group size and composition, the cognitive level of the tasks, the types of cognitive processes used to complete tasks, and the motivation and willingness of students to substantively engage in disciplinary reasoning. Our results point to important considerations in the design and implementation of active learning environments that engage more students with chemical ideas at higher levels of reasoning. 

   more » « less
4. Small Teacher Moves with Big Impacts in Shaping Students’ Sensemaking and Intellectual Authority in Science

   Schellinger, J.; Morandi, S.; Southerland, S.A.; Jaber, L.Z.; Tekkumru-Kisa, M.; & Krishnan, H. (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   This study explores the epistemological framing dynamics in one middle school biology classroom and how those dynamics shape students’ collaborative sensemaking in science. We trace how the teacher’s instructional moves shaped students’ framing, and the ways in which that framing influenced students’ learning. Our analysis shows that while the teacher framed small group argumentation activities as spaces for students to generate and negotiate ideas, brief but influential moves at the end of the lesson, which emphasized the correct answer, undermined students’ sensemaking and intellectual authority. These findings have implications for the design of teacher education highlighting the need to promote teachers’ awareness of the impact of their instructional moves in terms of how students frame their efforts in the classroom. 

   more » « less
5. Complexities and contradictions in a teacher’s activation of epistemological resources and their consequences for student framing

   Southerland, S. A.; Schellinger, J.; Jaber, L. Z.; & Morandi, S. (January 2023, Annual meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences)

   This research employs the lenses of epistemological resources and framing to examine the complexities of one teacher’s efforts to position his middle-school biology students as sensemakers. Through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, we trace the teacher’s activation of varied epistemological resources and how such resources positioned students’ efforts throughout the lesson. While the launch of tasks was framed as an opportunity for “doing science,” this framing became less stable when the teacher engaged with students in small group work and during the wrap up that were focused on the “right answer.” Specific phases of the lesson served as a context that influenced the epistemological resources activated, helping us understand the varied, dynamic, and sometimes contradictory nature of the teacher’s moves and their consequences on students’ framing of their efforts. 

   more » « less