Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators (2022) / Chapter Skim
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5 Learning Environments and Instructional Practices That Center Children, Investigation, and Design
5 Learning Environments and Instructional Practices That Center Children, Investigation, and Design
Pages 99-128
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From page 99... ...
• When teachers are able to elicit, notice, value, and build on the many ideas, experiences, and communicative resources that children bring to the classroom, they can organize connections between children's existing knowledge and curiosity and the environment around them, supporting children to continue to make sense of the natural and designed world. • A robust formative assessment approach provides appropriate supports for children to show their understanding and skill, includes ways for children to show their understanding in multiple modalities, and specifies a way of making inferences about children's understanding.
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From page 100... ...
How to design high-quality and equitable learning environments for preschool through elementary science and engineering is the focus of this chapter. Thus, the identification of key features of learning environments and instructional practices is guided by a commitment to equity (see Chapter 1)
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From page 101... ...
. Although research in preschool through elementary science and engineering is less extensive, emerging evidence suggests that when key features of the learning environment are coupled with instructional practices that build from them, preschool and elementary children can engage in science and engineering practices and learn sophisticated science ideas that are meaningful to their experiences and everyday life (Lehrer and Schauble, 2015; Metz, 2011; NRC, 2007)
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From page 102... ...
• Formative assessment includes probes and support for children. • Teachers develop understanding of the interpretation and potential biases involved in formative assessment.
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From page 103... ...
. A caring, collective culture can also influence the way that children relate to each other, how the class engages together in sensemaking, children's uptake of science and engineering practices, their sense of what constitutes a "smart science student," and their science and engineering identities (Carlone, Mercier, and Metzger, 2021; Kane, 2015, 2016; Varelas et al., 2008)
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From page 104... ...
. Moreover, scholars have increasingly highlighted the role of emotion in doing and learning science and engineering and have begun to develop accounts of classroom environments that draw on emotional dimensions to support individual and collective learning (Jaber and Hammer, 2016; Wright, 2019)
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From page 105... ...
For example, in the case of the three girls, previous experiences in the classroom led them to conclude that if they were to engage in argumentation in a particular way that it could be misin terpreted and result in additional consequences, suggesting that in this instance the learning environment may constrain opportunities for engaging in the prac tice of argumentation. This risk avoidance led to them engaging less fully in the engineering work at hand (Wright, Wendell, and Paugh, 2018)
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From page 106... ...
. Preschool educators have been found to use the most effective holistic instructional practices when facilitating science activities, in comparison to their practices in other subject areas (Cabell et al., 2013)
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From page 107... ...
. Overall, productive environments anchor children's activity in meaningful contexts, phenomena, and design challenges.
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From page 108... ...
Sustained opportunities for investigation and design provide repeated opportunities for children to grapple with science and engineering practices, engage with data, and develop deep conceptual understanding (Lehrer and Schauble, 2015; NRC, 2007, 2012)
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From page 109... ...
In each case, teachers supported children to make sense of how their investigations helped them make progress on their questions, what new gaps and questions investigations had surfaced, and what new data were needed. Giving children opportunities to discuss or make important decisions about how to define the questions or problems they are exploring, how to go about that exploration, and how to evaluate their efforts is crucial to the development of a science and engineering classroom community for meaningful sensemaking (Duschl, 2008; Ford and Forman, 2006; Lehrer, Schauble, and Petrosino, 2001; Manz, 2016; Metz, 2008)
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. First-Hand Observational Observe a phenomenon over a period of time (e.g., Studies Over Time examining plant growth or tracking weather)
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From page 111... ...
familiarity with ideas in contexts they co-create. Work may not generate useful comparisons so may require complementary learning experiences.
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From page 112... ...
Engineering learning experiences often emphasize problem solving without making space for children to engage in processes of identifying problems to be solved, identifying criteria and constraints, gathering more information to learn about the problem, and/or redefining the problem. Rather than allow children to engage in this work of "problem scoping" (Atman et al., 2007; Watkins, Spencer, and Hammer, 2014)
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From page 113... ...
. As children iteratively refine their ideas and artifacts, teachers use tools and resources and facilitate discussions and decision making to help maintain a focus on the purpose of investigative and design work by reminding children of where they are in their inquiry, articulating and/or posting the central challenge or question, and connecting children's ideas back to the purpose at hand (Manz, 2016; Winokur and Worth, 2006)
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From page 114... ...
114 SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING IN PRESCHOOL THROUGH ELEMENTARY GRADES BOX 5-3 Problem Defining and Problem Scoping in a Fourth Grade Engineering Design Activity Two fourth graders were discussing how to make a periscope that would allow two characters in a book to see a statue (Watkins, Spencer, and Hammer, 2014)
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From page 115... ...
of geologic water cycle. (Shim et al., 2018; Ambitious Science Teaching Unit)
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From page 116... ...
Because children's iterative sensemaking is often unpredictable and nonlinear, instructional and assessment practices involve adjusting resources and support based on children's progress and emerging questions. Further, the creation and refinement of artifacts and the discussions that emerge from this process make children's sensemaking visible and can serve as formative assessment evidence for teachers, as described later in this chapter.
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From page 117... ...
Equitable science and engineering learning environments recognize the vast range of communicative or semiotic resources that children leverage in the service of figuring out natural phenomena and addressing design challenges, especially for multilingual learners (Bang et al., 2017; NASEM, 2018a; Nasir et al., 2014)
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From page 118... ...
. Individual and Collective A small group of multilingual fifth graders plan and act out Whole-Body Movements an interpretation of the water cycle, using their position, interaction, and motion to show water particles collecting, evaporating, forming clouds, and precipitating. A classmate suggests a change to better show the relationship between rain and clouds (Kotler, 2020)
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From page 119... ...
2013) highlight Can minimize hierarchies and competition connections between children with varying academic histories. Collectively Small group, Select and Children learn about others' ideas Sharing jigsaw, or structure and designs.
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From page 120... ...
describe the kinds of "focused talk" that teachers can rely on to engage children in a dialogue intended to develop their thinking toward the lesson's learning goals. Teachers' focused talk can serve to make children's thinking visible, such as when a kindergarten teacher supported children to graphically represent the forces they thought acted on a person as they sailed down a slide (Windschitl, Thompson, and Braaten, 2018)
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From page 121... ...
discusses three common purposes for science assessment: formative assessment to guide science instructional processes, summative assessment to determine science attainment levels, and assessment for program evaluation to examine comparisons across classrooms, schools, districts, or countries. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2014a)
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From page 122... ...
. Verbal explanations and writing provide an important source of data for understanding children's explanation and conceptual understanding, illustrating how formative assessments draw on multiple forms of evidence.
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Although formative data appear to be easy to gather as part of children's ongoing work, teachers need to give careful consideration to the design of formative assessment probes posed during science and engineering activities (Keeley, 2018)
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From page 124... ...
supports the development of formative assessments aligned with learning trajectories or learning progressions, and provides a model for future work in science and engineering, noting that high-quality formative assessment building on learning trajectories must identify the goal, determine where the child's thinking is presently, and what instruction will support movement along the progression.
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could help ensure formative assessment efforts are grounded on teachers' understanding of disciplinary learning and less likely to be biased.
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. Thus, the design of the learning environment and the teacher's instructional practices and norms within that environment can play important roles in how children learn and engage in identity development.
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From page 127... ...
Lastly, teachers use formative assessments for multiple purposes, drawing on multiple forms of evidence
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From page 128... ...
Furthermore, children's collaboration and collective thinking can be strengthened by using different participation structures and explicitly inviting a wide set of resources into classroom work. Through these and other approaches, learning environments can support the kinds of meaningful opportunities to learn emphasized throughout this report.
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