Argumentation in Middle School Science Classrooms: A Video Ethnographic and Corpus Analysis of Discourse and Interaction in its Social and Linguistic Context

这个项目将研究中学课堂上的科学论证。该研究小组由乔治华盛顿大学的研究人员领导，包括语言学家、人类学家、教育研究人员以及认知和社会心理学家。在这个项目的过程中，他们将：(1)识别在六年级科学课上自然发生的论证情节；(2)分析引发此类事件的情境因素；(3)将这些发现与学生在期末科学测试中的表现联系起来。研究者希望确定语境因素是如何影响学生辩论的普遍性和复杂性的。这项研究是基于一个超过250小时的录像带的语料库，这些录像带超链接到35,000页的课堂互动转录，这些转录是在实施一个名为探索运动和力的探究式物理科学单元期间由美国国家科学基金会先前资助收集的。它还可以访问学生成绩数据的相关定量数据库。这些数据记录了学生在实验桌上进行小组作业时对课程内容的自发争论。该项目应提供一个方法论和经验基础，以此为基础进行进一步的研究，这些研究有望为科学课程开发和教师培训提供信息。

This project will study scientific argumentation in middle school classrooms. The research team, led by investigators from George Washington, includes linguists, anthropologists, education researchers, and cognitive and social psychologists. Over the course of this project, they will: (1) identify argumentation episodes that naturally occur in a sixth grade science class; (2) analyze contextual factors that prompt such episodes; and (3) relate these findings to student performance on an end-of-unit science test. The investigators hope to determine how contextual factors affect the prevalence and complexity of student argumentation.. The study is based on a corpus of over 250 hours of videotape hyperlinked to 35,000 pages of transcriptions of classroom interaction collected with prior NSF funding during the implementation of an inquiry-based physical science unit called Exploring Motion and Forces. It will also have access to a related quantitative database of student achievement data. The data capture the students during group work at lab tables engaged in spontaneous arguments about the curricular content. The project should provide a methodological and empirical foundation upon which to base further studies that promise to inform science curriculum development as well as teacher training.