Norges Forskningsråd

BUDDING SCIENCE AND LITERACY

Transatlantic Science Week Berkeley, USA, 26th October, 2011

Marianne Ødegaard - project leadermarianne.odegaard@naturfagsenteret.no

Do it! Talk it! Read it! Write it!

Forskerføtter og Leserøtter

Seeds of Science. Roots of Reading

• Do it Talk it Read it Write it

• Literacy activities integrated in inquiry-based science

• The child’s own creativity meets scientific creativity!

”How do we resemble scientists?”

Great mantra

!

Great mantra

!

Motivation for study

• The Knowledge Promotion Reform : Budding scientist Basic skills

• Inquiry-based science”Inquiry into authentic questions generated from student experiences is the central strategy for science teaching.” Anderson, 2007

• Science and literacy”Learning the language of science is a major part of science education.”Wellington & Osborne, 2001; Mortimer & Scott, 2003

Challenges & Paradoxes

• A step by step, detailed Teacher Guide – very rich in words!

• Norwegian teachers are used to more freedom when teaching a subject.

• US-context

• The detailed procedures ensure more open-ended and creative tasks for students

• Norwegian teachers in primary do not have much education in science.

• Where do units fit the Norwegian curriculum?

• Starting point: Professional development course for teachers: ”Science and basic skills”

• Combines teachers’ professional competence from the classroom with researchers’ knowledge of science education

• Together we try out, translate and later adapt curriculum material developed at University of California, Berkeley - Lawrence Hall of Science

Research-based development

• Aim:To study how the interplay of indoor/outdoor inquiry-based science activities and literacy activities can improve teachers’ instructional competence and students’ learning outcome in science.

• We design:The Budding Science and Literacy Teaching Model

Budding Science and LiteracyA longitudinal design-based study of using

inquiry-based science and literacy in comprehensive schooling

Professional development

cohort 2

Professional development

cohort 3

Professional development

cohort 1

Improving the teaching model

teachingimproved teaching

teachingS&R

teachingS&R

improved teaching

improved teaching

Iterative design

Improving the teaching model

Classroom studies: 6 teachers in 4 schools + their students (1.- 5. grade) Videoobservations Interviews (teacher + students) Classroom assignments

Course assignments: Written descriptions and presentationsClassroom observations

????

teaching teachingS&R

improved teaching

improved teaching

teachingS&R

improved teaching

Systematic variation of inquiry-based activities

• Multi-modal learning activities: Do-it. Read-it. Write-it. Talk-it. • Firsthand- and second- hand investigations• Multiple learning arenas• Synergy effects of inquiries in science and literacy

Explicit teaching

Teaching Teaching model: model: (research-based draft)

BUDDING SCIENCE AND LITERACY

(Ødegaard, Frøyland and Mork, 2011)

Systematic variation of inquiry-based activities

• Multi-modal learning activities: Do-it. Read-it. Write-it. Talk-it. • Firsthand- and second- hand investigations• Multiple learning arenas• Synergy effects of inquiries in science and literacy

Explicit teaching

•Nature of Science

• For

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Teaching Teaching model: model: (research-based draft)

BUDDING SCIENCE AND LITERACY

(Ødegaard, Frøyland and Mork, 2011)

• Mod

elin

g le

arni

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trat

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• F

ew c

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The good thing with this teaching model is that it gives support to the low achievers and challenges the high achievers. Teacher, 4th grade

The good thing with this teaching model is that it gives support to the low achievers and challenges the high achievers. Teacher, 4th grade

Searching for quality! gathering and analysing data

• Why are teachers so content with the teaching model/material?

• Why do students think this kind of learning is fun?

It’s not so much what they do, but the quality of how they do it. (from PISA+ Ødegaard & Klette, 2011)

Systematic variation of inquiry-based activities

• Multi-modal learning activities: Do-it. Read-it. Write-it. Talk-it. • Firsthand- and second- hand investigations• Multiple learning arenas• Synergy effects of inquiries in science and literacy

Explicit teaching

• Mod

elin

g le

arni

ng s

trat

egie

s •

Few

con

cept

s

•Nature of Science

• For

mati

ve a

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Research Research

project: project:

BUDDING SCIENCE AND LITERACY

(Ødegaard, Frøyland og Mork, 2011)

Trying out Seeds and Roots:• Unit: • Read it

(3.klasse) Wondering about what things are

made of and why.

• Do it • Write it Students make Students their own glue write down

for glueing the receipe beans on paper.

• Talk it

Which glue is best?And why??

Beginning to analyse videos:

(Pilot analysis from one lesson)

Searching for incidents for in-depth analysis:

Reading whole classWriting individualWriting whole classTalking whole classTalking group/pairTalking ind. presentingDoing whole classDoing group/pairDoing individual

Reading WritingTalkingDoing

Timeline for one pilot lesson:

Interesting?

Preliminary findings (PhD study): Linking everyday and scientific language

Gard Ove Sørvik (2011)

• A focus on a few key concepts seem to support “link-making” (Scott et al. 2011) in the on-going meaning making interaction of the classroom.

• The concept of systems appears to be especially valuable in this regard as it functions as a link-making tool across discourses for the students—linking their everyday ways of talking and thinking to the language of school science—and in the process of forming conceptual webs (Howe 1996).

• Students down to the year 1 appropriated the concept of systems.

• The notion of systems may be important to consider in terms of big or key ideas in science (Harlen 2010) or alternately as a key idea for science in schools.

How teachers know what students understandTeachers’ formative assessment of student understanding of scientific concepts

Berit Haug, PhD-student

Findings based on interviews with elementary school teachersIn general:-ongoing assessment of student understanding of scientific concepts is a spontaneous act that the teachers find hard to articulate-the selection of concepts to explain is based upon the teachers’ implicit presupposition of students’ knowledgebase

After implementing Seeds/Roots material-the selection of key concepts provides a direction and makes it easier to know what to focus upon-introducing the concepts through writing, reading, doing and talking make students’ thinking and understanding visible, hence easier to assess

“It’s hard to explain why I know the students know, it is a gut feeling.”Teacher (15 years of teaching experience)

“To focus on few concepts help me guide the students in the right direction, and I know what to look for when assessing their understanding.”Several of the teachers

Some system!

Before I just said things, now I can call them systems! Student, 4th grade (9 years)

Before I just said things, now I can call them systems! Student, 4th grade (9 years)

Thank you!

marianne.odegaard@naturfagsenteret.no