An Australian Proposal for Doing Critical Literacy Assessment: The Case of Writing

In this article we present current thinking and practices in Queens land, Australia, about how to do critical literacy assessment in the English classroom. In taking this focus, we propose and discuss a framework that brings together interest in text analysis and social practices. Then, we apply the framework showing how it can be used to generate writing tasks and assessment criteria that are consistent with critical pedagogy. Finally, the challenges of moving to a socially critical, discourse‐oriented approach to assessment are considered.     

Hybrid discourse practice and science learning

In this article, we report on a study of how creative linguistic practices (which we call hybrid discourse practices) were enacted by students in a fifth-grade science unit on barn owls and how these practices helped to produce a synergistic micro-community of scientific practice in the classroom that constituted a fertile space for students (and the teacher) to construct emergent but increasingly legitimate and dynamic disciplinary knowledges and identities. Our findings are important for the ways in which they demonstrate (a) how students use hybrid discourse practices to self-scaffold their work within complex curricular tasks and when they are not completely sure about how to enact these tasks (b) how hybrid discourse practices can promote inquiry orientations to science, (c) how hybrid discourse practices index new and powerful forms of science pedagogy, and (d) how hybrid discourse practices are relevant to more global issues such as the crucial roles of language fluency and creativity, which are known prerequisites for advanced science learning and which aid students in developing skills that are necessary for entry into science and technology careers.     

The discourse of classroom interaction in Kenyan primary schools

This paper addresses the role of classroom discourse in supporting children’s learning in Kenyan primary schools. The discourse strategies of 27 teachers teaching English, mathematics and science across the primary phase were intensively studied using discourse analysis and semi‐structured interviews. A survey questionnaire (n?=?359) was also used to explore teacher perceptions of classroom discourse practices. The findings revealed the dominance of teacher‐led recitation in which rote and repetition dominated the classroom discourse with little attention being paid to securing pupil understanding. The wider implications of the findings for improving the quality of classroom discourse in Kenyan primary schools are considered together with the need for further research into how the wider social order is influencing discourse practices in Kenyan primary schools.     

Close encounters of a bilingual kind: interactional practices in the primary classroom in Brunei

Little is known about the effectiveness of the interactional systems through which meaning is constructed in classrooms in multilingual contexts. Although language can be `planned', the actual discourse of the classroom is `unplanned'. It is well-attested that the discourse of the upper primary classroom in Brunei includes the use of Malay alongside the official language of the classroom, English. This paper argues that as talk is potentially the most valuable resource in the classroom, educational planning should take into account the existing communicative practices in the classroom.     

论话语分析在第二语言课堂中的运用

在第二语言课堂中，老师不仅可将话语分析作为考查他们自己教学实践的一个研究方法，而且可以作为研究语言学习者的课堂互动的一个工具。学习者可从运用话语分析中获益。他们可以运用话语分析来探讨语言是什么，和怎样在不同的语境下运用话语分析达到交流的目的和提高对另一语言的熟练程度。     

I BOOK REVIEWS

This study examines the influence of graphing calculators on a teacher's assessment practices in a college algebra course. The researcher focused on three techniques of alternative assessment: oral discourse, teacher observations, and problem‐solving investigations. The teacher's assessment practices were revealed during 6 weeks of classroom observations. The researcher examined the teacher's assessment practices before and after the teacher used graphing calculators as tools for teaching and learning mathematics. The use of the graphing calculators enhanced the teacher's assessment practices as related to oral discourse, classroom observations, and problem‐solving investigations. The results of the study indicate the potential for technological tools to influence teachers’ practices of alternative assessment in the mathematics classroom.     

论话语分析在第二语言课堂中的运用

在第二语言课堂中,老师不仅可将话语分析作为考查他们自己教学实践的一个研究方法,而且可以作为研究语言学习者的课堂互动的一个工具。学习者可从运用话语分析中获益。他们可以运用话语分析来探讨语言是什么,和怎样在不同的语境下运用话语分析达到交流的目的和提高对另一语言的熟练程度。     

The sound of music: Constructing science as sociocultural practices through oral and written discourse

In this article, we examine the oral and written discourse processes in a high school physics class and how these discourse processes are related to sociocultural practices in scientific communities. Our theoretical framework is based on sociological and anthropological studies of scientific communities and ethnographies of classroom life. We review the use of discourse analysis as a methodological orientation in science education and provide a logic‐of‐inquiry framing how we used discourse analysis in our ethnographic research. Our ethnographic analysis showed that, through students' participation in creating scientific papers on the physics of sound, their appropriation of scientific discourse was related to the framing activities of the teachers and the social practices established over time in the classroom. Our textual analysis of the student papers focused on how they used evidence to make claims. We explore the lessons learned from participating in the classroom of these students. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 883–915, 1999     

Explaining Variation in How Classroom Communities Adapt the Practice of Scientific Argumentation

Research and practice has placed an increasing emphasis on aligning classroom practices with scientific practices such as scientific argumentation. In this paper, I explore 1 challenge associated with this goal by examining how existing classroom practices influence students' engagement in the practice of scientific argumentation. To do so, I present discourse data from 2 middle school classes engaged in argumentation activities. For each class, I compare existing classroom practices to a discussion designed to facilitate argumentation. My analysis reveals that the existing classroom practices influenced the way in which students responded to the disparate ideas being discussed and that the immediate learning environment influenced the frequency with which students justified their ideas and directly responded to one another. This study suggests that the goal structures that aligned with the existing classroom practices carried over to students' argumentative interactions, influencing how they responded to the disparate ideas. However, the immediate learning environment—including activity structure, software tools, and teaching strategies—seemed to foster student-to-student interactions and justification of ideas.     

Using an Undergraduate Geometry Course to Challenge Pre-service Teachers' Notions of Discourse

This investigation uses classroom discoursein an undergraduate mathematics course tochallenge pre-service secondary mathematicsteachers' notions about mathematical discourse,what it might resemble in the classroom, andhow its various forms can be cultivated byclassroom teachers. The research setting was arequired geometry course taught by the author.Eleven pre-service mathematics teachers intheir junior or senior year of an undergraduate program participated. Results indicated participants made a transition toward an image of discourse as an active process by which students use the collective knowledge of their peers to build mathematical understanding and developed in their ability to participate in such discourse.This awareness, along with participants'analyses of their own habits of discourse asclassroom teachers, prompted shifts in theirprojected image of the role of discourse intheir future practices of teaching. Resultssuggested further that the undergraduatemathematics classroom (as opposed to themethods classroom) offers a powerful and uniqueforum in which pre-service secondary teacherscan practice, articulate, and collectivelyreflect on reform-minded ways of teaching.     

促进课堂教学公平的思考

课堂教学中的诸多不公平对学生的危害较大,呼吁教学民主和教师话语霸权的解构与重建,期待新的教师角色。公平对待每个学生,课堂互动中师生话语权的合理分配和师生平等时话对建构真实动态的交际课堂,有效提高课堂教学效率与质量,发挥教师和学生个性等具有极其重要的理论意义和实践价值。     

Dialogic Strategies in Read-Alouds of English-Language Information Books in a Second-Grade Bilingual Classroom

This article shows how various dialogic discourse strategies were used in read-alouds of English science information books in a 2nd-grade bilingual classroom. Using a variety of discursive strategies, Ibett encouraged her Spanish-speaking students to provide explanations and reasoning related to science ideas. Similarly, she used intertextual connections to prior classroom discourse, prompted deep understanding of new concepts, and reinforced vocabulary. This article illustrates that it is possible to employ dialogic practices in read-alouds of English informational science texts in bilingual classrooms to strengthen both language/literacy and science instruction.     

教师变量对小学生数学学习成绩影响的多水平分析

32名小学数学教师与这些教师所教班级的1691名学生参与了本研究。两个测量工具评价了教师的数学学科知识与学科教学知识,对教师的55节数学课进行了录像,并按照学习任务的认知水平与课堂对话的特点进行了编码,同时测查了学生的期末数学学习成绩。多水平分析结果表明:教师的学科教学知识、课堂学习任务的认知水平、课堂对话中教师提问问题的类型与对话的权威来源对学生的数学成绩具有显著的预测作用;而教师的学科知识对学生数学成绩的影响未达到显著性水平。     

Participatory pedagogy for empowerment: a critical discourse analysis of teacher–parents’ interactions in a family literacy course in London

This paper revisits and discusses some of Paulo Freire’s theoretical tenets for participatory education suggested as part of a critical approach to the education of adults. Through data collected during a family literacy programme, the author analyses her discursive interactions as an adult education tutor with parents as learners. These discourse practices are analysed using critical discourse analysis and are discussed against Freire’s principles for participatory pedagogy. The author’s decision to insert the analysis and discussion of her classroom practices within these theoretical frameworks lies on their focus on language and their alleged commitment to the transformation of discursive practices that reinforce unequal power relations in society. The findings of the study indicate the presence of authoritarian discourse that does little to change the power relations within the classroom. The author posits that despite managing to give rise to a discussion of themes related to parents’ advocacy and language awareness in their interactions within their children’s school, a deeper realisation and discussion of these issues was hindered by her failure to challenge the order of discourses present in her interactions with parents. The author concludes by suggesting that there is a need for teachers to closely re‐evaluate the features of their own discourse practices if immigrant parents attending family literacy courses are to be given a voice within the classroom as a first step towards raising their prospects of advocacy and empowerment in wider social contexts.     

“Noticing” as an Alternative Transfer of Learning Process

As transfer researchers have begun to investigate a broader range of phenomena, they have correspondingly put forward new processes to provide explanatory accounts for the occurrence of transfer. This move coincides with a call to acknowledge the contribution of social interactions, language, cultural artifacts, and normed practices to the generalization of learning. In this article, we posit “noticing” as a plausible transfer process and investigate both individual noticing and the social organization of noticing via the focusing framework. Specifically, we relate the nature of students' reasoning on transfer tasks with what students notice mathematically in classrooms when many sources of information compete for their attention, and then we account for noticing as socially situated in classroom discourse practices, features of mathematical tasks, and the nature of mathematical activity.     

Educational forms of initiation in mathematical culture

A review of literature shows that during the history of mathematics education at school the answer of what counts as ‘real mathematics’ varies. An argument will be given here that defines as ‘real mathematics’ any activity of participating in a mathematical practice. The acknowledgement of the discursive nature of school practices requires an in-depth analysis of the notion of classroom discourse. For a further analysis of this problem Bakhtin’s notion of speech genre is used. The genre particularly functions as a means for the interlocutors for evaluating utterances as a legitimate part of an ongoing mathematical discourse. The notion of speech genre brings a cultural historical dimension in the discourse that is supposed to be acted out by the teacher who demonstrates the tools, rules, and norms that are passed on by a mathematical community. This has several consequences for the role of the teacher. His or her mathematical attitude acts out tendencies emerging from the history of the mathematical community (like systemacy, non-contradiction etc.) that subsequently can be imitated and appropriated by pupils in a discourse. Mathematical attitude is the link between the cultural historical dimension of mathematical practices and individual mathematical thinking.     

Investigating and theorizing discourse during analogy writing in chemistry

Explanations of the role of analogies in learning science at a cognitive level are made in terms of creating bridges between new information and students' prior knowledge. In this empirical study of learning with analogies in an 11th grade chemistry class, we explore an alternative explanation at the “social” level where analogy shapes classroom discourse. Students in the study developed analogies within small groups and with their teacher. These classroom interactions were monitored to identify changes in discourse that took place through these activities. Beginning from socio‐cultural perspectives and hybridity, we investigated classroom discourse during analogical activities. From our analyses, we theorized a merged discourse that explains how the analog discourse becomes intertwined with the target discourse generating a transitional state where meanings, signs, symbols, and practices are in flux. Three categories were developed that capture how students intertwined the analog and target discourses—merged words, merged utterances/sentences, and merged practices. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 771–792, 2011     

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.     

The first cut is the deepest: reflections on the state of animal dissection in biology education

School science discourse is analysed through professional research literature, curriculum materials, professional development materials, and popular and mass culture science materials, including the world-wide-web. The crucial role of fun is used as a node through which to understand how school science practice is intimately connected with theories of motivation so that school science practice can be interpreted as a technology of power. Web pages and television programmes are analysed as extreme cases of the application of this discourse, revealing an overarching representation of science curriculum. Alternative directions for classroom practice are suggested.