Modeling in Primary Grades (MPG): Science Learning through Content Rich Inquiry

这个探索性项目考察了二年级学生的教师如何支撑学生概念模型的发展，以及他们对科学模型的本质的理解，以及与物质的颗粒性质相关的物理科学概念领域的建模过程。教师接受专业发展，他们可以促进与幼儿进行富有成效的学科讨论，从而使学生理解下一代科学标准中的核心思想。该项目以自由/开源软件单元“固体和液体”和“水”以及STC单元“声音”为基础，重点关注物质和声音的主题。它建立在一个早期针对幼儿园教师和学生的生命科学项目的基础上，以扩大研究界对幼儿如何学习科学的理解。来自普渡大学（Purdue University）的研究人员正在与拉斐特（Lafayette）拉美裔人口较多、社会经济地位较低的公立学校以及人口较为富裕的私立学校系统合作。该项目采用混合方法研究设计，将丰富的定性数据收集和分析与准实验设计相结合，通过相同的课程材料检查学生在治疗组和比较组的学习情况，但教师提供不同的支持，以使学生参与有关他们正在学习的科学现象的学科生产性讨论。研究性问题的设计是为了引出学生对学习的不同方面的描述，以及与课堂环境相关的教学策略的丰富描述。由于这是一项探索性研究，因此没有在教师实践和学生成果之间进行因果比较，但该项目为支持未来采取更严格方法的研究提供了基础。该项目进一步发展了检查学生模型的学科丰富描述的方法，以促进对内容和推理如何与幼儿相互作用的理解。最近的认知研究表明，幼儿的推理方式比以前所理解的要复杂得多。《下一代科学标准》非常注重学生的推理实践，学生对科学现象的解释的发展要求学生有机会体验课堂上对科学思想的讨论。教师需要如何与幼儿互动的例子，以及如何以推动对科学概念理解的方式解释学生所说的话。这项基础研究提供了描述性的范例，可以在研究文献和实践出版物中共享，作为认知丰富教学法可以实现的示例。

This exploratory project examines how teachers of second grade students scaffold the development of student conceptual models and their understanding of the nature of scientific models and modeling processes in physical science conceptual areas associated with the particulate nature of matter. Teachers receive professional development around ways in which they can facilitate productive disciplinary discussions with young children that result in students coming to understand core ideas in the Next Generation Science Standards. The project focuses on the topics of matter and sound based on the FOSS units "Solids and Liquids" and "Water," and the STC unit "Sound". It builds on an earlier project on life science for kindergarten teachers and students to expand the research communities understanding of how young children learn in science. Researchers from Purdue University are working with public schools in Lafayette that have high Hispanic populations and low SES, as well as a private school system with a more affluent population.This project employs a mixed methodological research design that incorporates rich qualitative data collection and analysis combined with a quasi-experimental design that examines student learning across a treatment and comparison group with the same curricular materials but with differing support for teachers to engage students in disciplinary productive discussions about the science phenomena that they are studying. Research questions are designed to elicit descriptions of the differing aspects of learning that are evidenced by students together with rich descriptions of the teaching strategies that are associated with the classroom environments. Because this is an exploratory study, no causal comparisons between teacher practices and student outcomes are drawn, but the project provides the underpinnings that will support future research that would take a more rigorous approach. The project further develops the methodology of examining disciplinary rich description of student models to advance the understanding of how content and reasoning interact with young children. Recent research in cognition has demonstrated that young children reason in a more sophisticated manner than previously understood. The Next Generation Science Standards has a strong focus on student reasoning practices, and the development of student explanations of science phenomenon requires that students have the opportunity to experience classrooms in which discussions of scientific ideas are scaffolded. Teachers need examples of how to interact with young children and of how to interpret what students say in ways that move the understanding of scientific concepts forward. This foundational research provides descriptive exemplars that can be shared in both the research literature and in practitioner publications as examples of what cognitively rich pedagogy can achieve.