The dilemma of guidance in scientific inquiry teaching.

摘要

The dilemma of guidance is a universal predicament that lies at the core of teaching. That is, teachers must simultaneously allow students to explore and learn on their own, while making sure that students' efforts result in the particular understandings that we want them to learn. The space between is occupied by some level of guidance provided by the teacher to support students' learning; yet the nature of that guidance remains unknown for many teachers. This study is a mixed-method, multiple case study that explores the guidance four teachers provided their students during discussions in scientific inquiry investigations.; The scientific inquiry reform movement has been around for over 40 years, and has shown positive impact on student learning; however, present descriptions of scientific inquiry teaching are vague and have led to large variations in how teachers actually implement this method in their classrooms. Through a review of literature on the role of discourse in classrooms, I developed a collection of strategies that are indicative of more or less guidance provided by the teacher during discussions. I then applied this framework in a larger study that examined the impact of formative assessment on teacher's teaching a middle school, physical science unit on sinking and floating that helps students develop a relative-density based, universal explanation for sinking and floating. From the 12 teachers who were trained to use this curriculum the larger study, I selected four for this dissertation. Two of these teachers had students who showed higher learning gains from pre- to posttests of student learning, while the other two teachers' students showed lower learning gains.; This dissertation used three sources of data---videotapes of classroom discussions, teacher interviews, and measures of student learning---to explore the nature of guidance and its relationship to student learning. The four teachers' lessons were examined and their whole-class discussions were identified; these discussions were then segmented and coded according to the directedness of guidance provided by the teacher and the level of conceptual understanding evident in the discourse. The resulting coding summaries were paired with teacher interviews and used to triangulate propositions about each teacher's pattern of guidance. In addition, students' learning was measured at four points through the unit to determine the state of students' explanations of sinking and floating.; The findings of this study revealed large differences in the guidance teachers provided students during the unit. Teachers whose students showed lower gains in learning exhibited patterns of alternating between high and low levels of guidance. The teachers whose students showed higher gains had more mixed patterns of guidance. The results suggested that the teachers whose students had higher gains illustrated more instructionally responsive teaching, and took an active role to move students toward learning goals, whereas the lower-gain classes received little meaningful guidance from teachers. Measures of student learning indicated teacher effects. This dissertation suggests that current descriptions of scientific inquiry teaching have led to interpretations of the method that do not acknowledge the vital role of the teacher in actively guiding students to reach learning goals.