Career: Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Urban Classrooms

该项目的理论框架具体说明了科学实验的主要认识论特征。在这个框架的基础上，该项目将开发一个基于计算机的环境，在这个环境中，七年级的学生可以在细胞生物学领域进行模拟实验。模拟实验将被设计成捕捉真正的科学实验的许多关键的认识论特征。基于计算机的实验环境将被用于一系列研究，以调查学生如何学习复杂形式的科学推理。这项研究的一个主要焦点将是调查计算机模拟在课堂教学中促进复杂学习的社会认知过程。计划中的研究包括两个大型课堂实验，它们将提供一幅丰富而详细的图景，展示七年级学生在课堂教学过程中如何每时每刻地变化推理和细胞知识。课堂教学使用一种名为关于证据的协作推理的教学方法，将全班讨论与小组工作交叉进行，学生在小组中进行并讨论模拟实验。这项研究旨在对全班讨论和小组互动如何调节学生的学习提供一个细粒度的分析。总而言之，这个研究项目的目的是(A)提供关于如何教给学生关于认识论上真实实验的推理的新见解，以及(B)产生经过测试的教学软件、材料和方法，以便教师在他们的课堂上容易地访问和使用。

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.