Source: Journal of Science Teacher Education, Volume 23, Issue 7, p. 769-788. November 2012
In this study, the authors examined teachers’ instructional moves to elicit and develop students’ ideas and questions as they orchestrated discourse with their fifth grade students during a learner-centered environmental biology unit.
The unit materials included features meant to support teachers in eliciting and working with students’ ideas and questions as a source for student-led investigations.
The authors present three contrasting cases of teachers to highlight evidence that shows teachers’ differing strategies for eliciting students’ ideas and questions, and for developing their ideas, questions and questioning skills.
Results from the cross case analysis provide insight into the ways in which teachers’ enactments enabled them to work with students’ ideas and questions to help advance learning.
The authors found that teachers could readily elicit ideas and questions but experienced challenges in helping students develop them.
Findings suggest a need for more specified supports, such as specific discourse strategies, to help teachers attend to student thinking.
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