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

这个探索性的项目探讨了二年级学生的教师如何支架学生的概念模型的发展和他们的理解的科学模型的性质和建模过程中的物理科学概念领域与物质的颗粒性质。教师围绕他们可以促进与幼儿进行富有成效的学科讨论的方式获得专业发展，从而使学生能够理解下一代科学标准中的核心思想。该项目以自由和开放源码软件单元“固体和液体”和“水”以及科技委单元“声音”为基础，侧重于物质和声音的专题。它建立在早期的幼儿园教师和学生生命科学项目的基础上，以扩大研究界对幼儿如何在科学中学习的理解。普渡大学的研究人员正在与拉斐特的公立学校合作，这些学校的西班牙裔人口较多，社会经济地位较低，以及一个私立学校系统与更富裕的人口。这个项目采用了一个混合的方法研究设计，结合丰富的定性数据收集和分析，结合准，一种实验设计，通过相同的课程材料，但不同的支持教师让学生参与的治疗组和对照组来检查学生的学习情况。对他们正在研究的科学现象进行富有成效的学科讨论。研究问题的目的是引出学习的不同方面的描述，证明了学生与丰富的描述与课堂环境相关联的教学策略。因为这是一项探索性研究，教师的做法和学生的结果之间没有因果关系的比较，但该项目提供了支持未来的研究，将采取更严格的方法的基础。该项目进一步开发了检查学生模型的学科丰富的描述，以促进内容和推理如何与幼儿互动的理解的方法。最近的认知研究表明，幼儿的推理方式比以前理解的更复杂。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，在课堂上讨论科学思想。教师需要的例子，如何与幼儿互动，以及如何解释学生所说的方式，推动科学概念的理解前进。这项基础研究提供了描述性的范例，可以在研究文献和从业者出版物中共享，作为认知丰富的教学法可以实现的例子。

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.