Career: Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Urban Classrooms

本项目建立在一个理论框架的基础上，该框架详细说明了科学实验的关键认识论特征。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许多真实科学实验的关键认识论特征。然后，以计算机为基础的实验环境将用于一系列研究，以调查学生如何学习复杂形式的科学推理。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，这将提供一个丰富而详细的画面，说明七年级学生的推理和细胞知识是如何在课堂教学中时刻变化的。课堂教学采用一种名为“证据协作推理”的教学方法，将全班讨论与学生进行和讨论模拟实验的小组工作穿插在一起。这些研究旨在对课堂讨论和小组互动如何影响学生的学习进行细致的分析。总而言之，这个研究项目的目的是(a)为如何教学生对认识论上真实的实验进行推理提供新的见解，(b)生产可测试的教学软件、材料和方法，教师可以在课堂上轻松访问和使用。

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.