CAREER: Classroom Instruction to Promote Authentic Experimentation

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This project is grounded in a theoretical framework that specifieskey epistemological features of scientific experimentation. On the basisof this framework, the project will develop a computer-based environment in whichseventh graders can conduct simulated experiments in the domain of cellbiology. The simulated experiments will be designed to capture many ofthe crucial epistemological features of authentic scientificexperimentation. The computer-based experimentation environment will thenbe used in a series of studies to investigate how students learn complexforms of scientific reasoning. A main focus of the studies will be toinvestigate the sociocognitive processes by which computer simulationspromote complex learning during classroom instruction. The planned studiesinclude two large classroom experiments that will provide a rich, detailedpicture of how seventh graders' reasoning and knowledge of cells change,moment to moment, during classroom instruction. The classroom instruction,using an instructional method called Collaborative Reasoning aboutEvidence, will interleave whole-class discussions with small-group work inwhich students conduct and discuss simulated experiments. The studies willaim to provide a fine-grained analysis of how whole-class discussions andgroup interactions mediate students' learning. In sum, this program ofresearch is intended (a) to provide new insights into how to teach studentsto reason about epistemologically authentic experimentation and (b) toproduce tested instructional software, materials, and methods that teacherscan readily access and use in their classrooms.