Contemporary science education frameworks identify computational thinking as an essential science and engineering practice that supports scientific sense-making and engineering design. Despite national emphasis on teaching science, engineering, and computational thinking (NGSS Lead States, 2013), little research has investigated the ways that…

This article reports on a design-based implementation research (DBIR) project that addresses the question: "How can classrooms be supported at scale to achieve the three-dimensional learning goals of the Next Generation Science Standards?" Inherent in this question are three key design challenges: (i) "three-dimensional…

This case study explores how a group of Grade 9 students engaged in sociopolitical discourses and actions in a science class in a mostly indigenous student school in Nepal. The study used sociopolitical consciousness (SPC) as a framework to document and understand indigenous students' SPC-oriented science interactions and subsequent social change…

Argumentation has been the emphasis of many studies during the last decade. However, previous studies have not identified why some students are more successful than others, and what are students' characteristics of argumentation, especially when working collaboratively. The purpose of this study was to identify how young students construct…

This study documents how an urban high school science teacher engaged her English Language Learners (ELLs) in the discourse-intensive science and engineering practices of (1) arguing from evidence and (2) obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. The teacher taught an introductory integrated science course to classes with a large…

We set out to understand how different instantiations of inquiry emerged in two different years of one elementary teacher's classroom. Longitudinal observations from Mrs. Charles' 5th grade science classroom forced us to carefully and deliberately consider who exactly was responsible for the change in the class activities and norms. We provide…

Examines and characterizes student use of narrative and paradigmatic expression in elementary science discourse. Focuses on the narrative and paradigmatic modes of expression used by combined first-, second-, and third-grade students in a semi-structured, fairly autonomous, whole-class conversational format. Over time students moved toward more…

Examines the way teachers humanize science by focusing specifically on their use of analogies and metaphors. Explores classroom discourse in order to examine how teachers creatively use analogies to clarify an idea, develop a concept, or communicate a message leading to new research questions about the cultural, linguistic, and social…

Discusses research on kinetic structure, a microstructure concept (concerned with sequential organization of individual verbal statements or individual behavior acts). (PEB)

A model constructed by combining nine theories relating wait-time, teacher expectations, equity and fate control to inquiry behaviors is described. Results indicate implusive students can be converted to reflective pupils by providing them with time to think and by allowing alternative answers. (BR)

Presents some considerations about the variable of "wait time," a pause after a teacher question so that students can think or a pause after a student statement. (PEB)

Reports a study to analyze relationships between noverbal skills acquired by preservice science teachers in a methods course and their application during student teaching. Microteaching format was used in the experimental group to develop nonverbal cues and silence. Analysis indicated experimental preservice science teachers differed significantly…

Studied the effects of eighth grade students' cognitive, motivational, personality, and classroom interaction characteristics on their academic achievement, attitudes toward science, and socio-metric measures. Concluded that a specified combination of student traits and teacher attention could lead to different unintential consequences in science…

In classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school, researchers have identified target students as students who monopolize material and human resources. Classroom structures that privilege the voice and actions of target students can cause divisive social dynamics that may generate cliques. This study focuses on the emergence of target students,…

Subjects (N=41) were randomly assigned to one of two groups defined by the teacher's clarity in a genetics lesson: low-clarity versus high-clarity. Subjects rated lesson presentation and completed a test on content. The high-clarity group perceived lessons as significantly clearer and achieved more than the low-clarity group. (DS)