Guiding classroom discussions for democratic citizenship education

Classroom discussion is frequently proposes as an essential part of democratic citizenship education. Literature, however, pays little attention to what kind of discussion is most effective and how teachers can facilitate a discussion. This study aims to contribute to the development of a framework for analysing the characteristics of classroom discussions and the different roles teachers can adopt in guiding a discussion on controversial issues. In addition, we investigated how the way teachers guide the discussion is related to the structure and content features of the discussion. The framework was used to analyse five classroom discussions in secondary education. Our framework appeared to be useful for revealing differences in the structure and content features of the classroom discussions and in the way teachers guide the discussion. The results also indicated that a high degree of teacher regulation was related to high content quality and more participation from students. A high degree of student regulation was linked to more genuine discussion among students. The study underlines the importance of taking account of the teacher’s role in research into the effectiveness of classroom discussions for democratic citizenship education and the study makes useful suggestions for teachers when preparing for a classroom discussion.     

Teacher support for collective argumentation: A framework for examining how teachers support students’ engagement in mathematical activities

We propose a framework for examining how teachers may support collective argumentation in secondary mathematics classrooms, including teachers’ direct contributions to arguments, the kinds of questions teachers ask, and teachers’ other supportive actions. We illustrate our framework with examples from episodes of collective argumentation occurring across 2 days in a teacher’s classroom. Following from these examples, we discuss how the framework can be used to examine mathematical aspects of conversations in mathematics classrooms. We propose that the framework is useful for investigating and possibly enhancing how teachers support students’ reasoning and argumentation as fundamentally mathematical activities.     

Organising a culture of argumentation in elementary science

ABSTRACT

Most of the research on argumentation in science education has documented the myriad flaws in students’ argumentation, and the difficulties teachers have organising productive arguments in the classroom. We apply a sociocultural framework to argue that productive argumentation emerges from a classroom culture in which its practice meaningfully serves classroom goals. We present a case study using interaction analysis to contrast two elementary teachers’ efforts to organise productive scientific argumentation in their classrooms. One teacher used discourse moves to orient students to each other’s contributions in ways the other did not, reflecting differences in underlying aims for collective versus individual sense-making. This analysis shows that connecting discourse practices specifically to a goal of collective sense-making promotes productive argumentation.     

Reading Sacred Texts in the Classroom: The Alignment Between Students and Their Teacher’s Interpretive Stances When Reading the Hebrew Bible

This study investigated the voices of students interpreting Hebrew Bible texts in one fourth-grade classroom. Through think-alouds on the Biblical text with each student, exit interviews, teacher interviews, and classroom observations, this study found that those students whose interpretive stances were more aligned with the teacher’s were given greater voice in classroom text discussions than students whose interpretive stances were misaligned. Drawing on neo-Vygotskian education theory, I argue that Jewish educators need to take students’ interpretive stances seriously; attempting to force students into an interpretive framework that is set by the teacher will only undermine student learning and engagement.     

Social Justice Education in a Diverse Classroom: Examining High School Discussions about Race,Power, and Privilege

High school students who participate in social justice education have a greater awareness of inequities that impact their school, community, and society, and learn tools for taking action to address these inequities. Also, a classroom that consist of students with a diverse set of identities creates an ideal circumstance in which a teacher can build upon student differences in order to facilitate meaningful discussions about social justice, especially issues of race. Therefore, in this article we use qualitative case study approaches to examine a high school course on social justice education, paying specific attention to the classroom pedagogy and dialogue on issues of race, power, and privilege. The course was purposefully diverse in enrollment, which brought students together who might not have had interactions with each other prior to the class. We employ Hackman's (2005) five components of social justice education (SJE) as a framework for the analysis of the pedagogy and discussions constructed in the classroom, as well as a common language for what constitutes as social justice education in our research inquiry. Students in the course developed a facility for defining and identifying various forms of oppression and injustice. However, we questioned to what extent these very same issues played out in the class dialogue. Due to the level of student diversity, the course was a unique space to learn about racism and intersecting issues of social justice. However, there was still some student resistance to acknowledging certain aspects of racism. In conclusion, we discuss how social justice education is not absolved from, but rife with complex racial politics.     

Teacher researchers creating communities of research practice by the use of a professional development approach

The aim of this article is to elucidate how teacher researchers use a theoretical framework as mediated tool to create boundaries in communities of research practices (CoRPs) and how this effects student learning. If, and in what way, knowledge developed in one practice can be used to inform the next is also examined. Two teacher researchers implemented two CoRPs each, one as internal participant and one as external participant. In total, 202 students, 22 teachers, 2 teacher researchers, and 1 researcher participated. The qualitative analysis is framed by Wenger’s three boundary dimensions: engagement, imagination, and alignment. The results show that teachers’ actions in the second practice, no matter if they were internal or external participants, are characterized by a higher degree of security and knowledge and the lessons implemented are more effective regarding the students’ learning outcomes than in the first. The results show that knowledge develops in an interaction order regardless of the internal or external community order. The result from the first team informs the starting point for the second team, and knowledge boundaries are transferred by the teacher researcher from one CoRP to the other.     

Understanding teachers’ pedagogical choice: a sociological framework combining the work of Bourdieu and Giddens

Understanding teachers’ pedagogical choice provides a new insight into the influences on student achievement. This paper presents a sociological framework developed from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens that identify the complex social interactions which surround teacher’s work. The framework examines teachers’ potential to act knowledgeably and intentionally and how this action also leads to unintended consequences of those actions. This is important, as both the intentional action and the associated unintended consequences affect the teacher’s classroom practice and the learning of students. Application of the framework to examine the influences on teachers’ pedagogical choice is presented through two school case studies from Victoria, Australia. The environment that encourages teachers to actively review their teaching practice is revealed. It was through reflective collaborative discussions that teachers reviewed their current classroom practices and trial or implement different pedagogies to enhance the learning of young people in their classrooms.     

Students as Scholars: Integrating Independent Research into Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate programs across the country are working to develop students as scholars, integrating independent scholarly experiences into traditional undergraduate classroom environments (see, e.g. George Mason University's Students as Scholars Quality Enhancement Plan; Boston University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program; University of Houston’s Learning through Discovery; University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program; etc.). Scholars and universities have touted the benefits of engaging students in research experiences for students as well as faculty. However, there is little empirical work exploring how undergraduate students adapt to their new role as scholars. In this paper, we explore the process of students integrating research into their undergraduate classroom experience. Based on participant observation and pre and postsemester survey data, we discuss the process of students learning as scholars in a capstone Criminology, Law & Society course. We focus on how students gathered and analyzed data and integrated their research experience into their overall learning for the course. We find the process of research reinforces the learning objectives of the course.     

Evaluating student engagement and experiential learning in global classrooms: A qualitative case study

The global classroom is an emerging technology-based pedagogy used internationally by educational institutions. To evaluate a global classroom, we conducted a qualitative study using written reflections and semi-structured interviews of global classroom participants, based on two theoretical frameworks: Kearsley and Shneiderman’s engagement theory and Kolb’s experiential learning theory. We analyzed student reflections and transcribed interviews, using the software package, NVivo, with two objectives: (1) to evaluate if global classroom is engaging and experiential to students and (2) to elucidate how student engagement is fostered in the global classroom through experiential learning. Results illustrated a complex relationship between student engagement and experiential learning. During the experiential learning cycle, engagement theory (relate-create-donate) principles contributed to student engagement at varying levels and for different purposes. Based on the results of this study, we created a framework that demonstrates the interactivity of engagement theory and experiential learning theory to describe how student engagement featured in experiential learning during this global classroom, with strategies to maximize student engagement in experiential learning.     

Valuing Science: A Turkish–American comparison

A problem that is still unexplored in the field of socioscientific issues (SSI) and that was explored in this study is how different students decide upon a SSI they are discussing, how their justifications change during the instruction and how they use (or not) the evidence from the learning environment to support their justifications. For the purposes of this study, two classes (12–13-year-old students) with diverse characteristics were selected from two different schools in the UK. Class A students, considered high achievers come from a white-British background. Class B students considered average achievers come from an Asian British background. The students engaged in discussions regarding a SSI (Should we kill the grey squirrel to save the red?), supported by an online learning environment. Students’ written arguments, classroom discussions, and classroom observations were collected and analysed. The findings suggest that even though the two classes engaged with the same learning environment, the decisions and justifications provided by the pairs in the two classes were quite distinct. The students used the evidence from the learning environment in ways which supported their decision, and tended to ignore evidence if these contradicted their decision. Furthermore, students’ justifications support the hypothesis that their decision was based on whether they identified with the actors of the issue. Implications for research include exploring how students identify with the actors of a SSI to enable us to support them overcoming their personal narratives and becoming critical evaluators of scientific knowledge.     

The impact of conflicting goals on mathematical teaching decisions

This paper describes part of an international project considering graphical construction of antiderivative functions in the secondary mathematics classroom. We use Schoenfeld’s resources, orientations, and goals (ROGs) framework to analyse the decisions made by a teacher, Adam, during a lesson on graphical antiderivatives. We present details of Adam’s ROG and see how this is related to resolution of the conflict between his competing goals and the decisions he makes. The results suggest that a beneficial professional development strategy might be to assist teachers to become more aware of their ROG and its influence on in-the-moment classroom decisions.     

The Nature of Discourse throughout 5E Lessons in a Large Enrolment College Biology Course

Large enrolment science courses play a significant role in educating undergraduate students. The discourse in these classes usually involves an instructor lecturing with little or no student participation, despite calls from current science education reform documents to elicit and utilize students’ ideas in teaching. In this study, we used the 5E instructional model to develop and implement four lessons in a large enrolment introductory biology course with multiple opportunities for teacher-student and student-student interaction. Data consisted of video and audio recordings of whole-class and small-group discussions that took place throughout the study. We then used a science classroom discourse framework developed by Mortimer and Scott (2003) to characterize the discursive interactions in each 5E lesson phase. Analysis of the data resulted in two assertions. First, the purpose, communicative approach, patterns of discourse, and teaching interventions were unique to each 5E lesson phase. Second, the type of lesson topic influenced the content of the discourse. We discuss how the findings help characterize the discourse of each phase in a 5E college science lesson and propose a model to understand internalization through discursive interaction using this reform-based approach. We conclude with implications for facilitating discourse in college science lessons and future research. This study provides support for using the discourse framework to characterize discursive interaction in college science courses.     

Student perceptions and use of feedback during active learning: a new model from repeated stimulated recall interviews

As active learning pedagogies continue to increase in popularity in higher education, new questions have emerged about how instructors can manage all of the associated ‘moving parts’ of active learning, including how and when to deliver feedback. Currently, little is known about how students perceive the effects of verbal feedback during in-class activities. This study examined two large sections of introductory biology held in an active learning SCALE-UP (Student-Centred Active Learning Environments with Upside-down Pedagogies) classroom. Thematic analysis of repeated stimulated recall interviews with 15 students (72 total interviews) uncovered three main categories of feedback effects that students perceived: assure, alert and add (AAA). These three categories were supported by repeated stimulated recall surveys with a larger student population (262 students). We describe each category, quantify the frequency of each category in the target course, outline the students’ perceived impact of each on examination preparation and performance, and conclude with implications regarding how understanding students’ perceptions of their feedback experience may help instructors to deliver student-centred feedback during active learning.     

Encouraging student engagement in a blended learning environment: the use of contemporary learning spaces

Research shows that some non‐traditional students find the university environment alienating, impersonal and unsupportive. The ‘Quickstart’ project combines traditional lectures and seminars with a sequence of carefully designed online tasks, aimed at lessening the impact of the start of year uncertainties for new students. One thousand students across two geographic locations participated in the programme. The project was evaluated by considering three sources of data: data generated by server statistics of 40,358 successful requests for pages in the first four weeks of teaching; student anonymous responses to an online end of course questionnaire as well as extracts from their reflective journals; and the student experience as viewed through the eyes of a researcher in the classroom. Findings offer insights into how the students blend classroom time with their own time; and student perceptions of their own learning experiences. A collaborative learning experience involving travel to a contemporary learning space (the Tate Modern Art Gallery) mitigated the possible isolating effect of the use of technology; instead the technology enhanced the discussion and participation in activities. The students visited the Tate Modern and then facilitated their discussions by sending each other SMS text messages; they bonded very quickly in the seminar groups, where weekly online tasks that had been prepared individually ‘outside’ the classroom were the focus of group discussion and debate ‘inside the classroom’; their end of semester reflective writing showed very clearly how valuable the early ‘friendship’ groups had been for them settling into university life.     

Using a Dialogical Approach to Examine Peer Feedback During Chemistry Investigative Task Discussion

Peer feedback is an inherent feature of classroom collaborative learning. Students invariably turn to their peers for feedback when carrying out an investigative task, and this feedback is usually implicit, unstructured and may positively or negatively influence students’ learning when they work on a task. This study explored the characteristics of verbal peer feedback during a collaborative investigative chemistry task involving New Zealand Year 13 students. During the planning stage of the students’ investigation, the discussions of five pairs of students were recorded and then transcribed. Analysis of transcribed verbal data focused on interactions that involved peer feedback along two dimensions, interactive/non-interactive and dialogic/authoritative (Mortimer and Scott, 2003). The findings indicated that although students adopted a predominantly interactive/authoritative communicative approach, with peer feedback as confirmation or evaluation, they are also capable of a more interactive/dialogic exchange, characterised by elaborative peer feedback. We discuss how this dialogic perspective on peer feedback provides an alternative approach to the analysis and study of student–student interactions during science investigations. The findings should be interpreted in light of the limitations in terms of sample size, grouping and specificity of the coding scheme. Implications for teacher practice are discussed in relation to facilitating peer feedback discourse in the science classroom.     

Positioning participation in the NGSS era: What counts as success?

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) strives to shift science learning from the teacher as a single cognitive agent, to a classroom community in which participants are working together in directing the classroom's communal knowledge to figure out questions about how phenomena occur, and building, testing, and refining their ideas to address those questions. To achieve this type of classroom environment, teachers should attend to students' knowledge and ideas and pay attention to how students are located within teacher-led interactions, such as being positioned as active discussants or designated listeners. In this study, we explore if and how this is occurring in the NGSS era. We used a naturalistic inquiry to explore how an experienced first-grade teacher used a new NGSS-aligned unit that called for students to use the science and engineering practices (SEP) to build content knowledge. We used a macro-analytic lens to answer the research question “how are class discussions shaped to address the SEP”? We used a micro-analytic lens to answer the research question “how are students positioned during these science discussions in this classroom?” Evidence suggests that the teachers' whole class discussions incorporated and involved the SEP which were specified in the unit lessons for content learning. However, on a micro-analytic level, we found that few students were positioned as active discussants. The teacher heavily relied on those students who could provide succinct and clearly relevant answers while positioning the remainder of the students as silent spectators. Implications from this research suggest that not only new NGSS curriculum materials need to focus on what students should know and do but they also need to address heuristics for teachers that show them how to position all of their students as active doers of science so all students have opportunities to build deeper, core science knowledge.     

Student perceptions of classroom feedback

Feedback to students has been identified as a key strategy in learning and teaching, but we know less about how feedback is understood by students. The purpose of this study is to gain more insight into lower secondary students’ perceptions of when and how they find classroom feedback useful. This article draws on data generated through individual interviews with 11 students representing four lower secondary schools (grades 8–10, aged 13–15) in Norway. Feedback types are identified from students’ perceptions, coded and indexed. A feedback typology is designed to provide a framework which can be used to reflect on useful classroom feedback based on lower secondary school students’ perceptions.