An Analysis of the Supports and Constraints for Scientific Discussion in High School Project-Based Science

摘要

One goal of project-based science is to promote the development of scientificdiscourse communities in classrooms. Holding rich high school scientific discussions ischallenging, especially when the demands of content and norms of high school sciencepose challenges to their enactment. There is little research on how high school teachersenact scientific discussions using project-based science curricula, making the kinds ofnecessary embedded supports unclear. To address that gap in the research literature, thisstudy analyzed curriculum supports and embedded educative features for the enactment ofscience discussions in one high school project-based science curriculum. Through a studyof teacher enactment and a comparison of the curriculum discussion supports, we observedthat while teachers increased their attempts to engage in inquiry-based discussion practiceswhere supports were offered, they relied on heavily on traditional "recitation" formats,demonstrating that existing curricular supports were not developed enough to supportdialogic classroom interactions. We hypothesize about conditions that may contribute tothe pervasiveness of typical discourse practices in high school science discussions. Weargue for expanded curricular discussion supports for teachers and design research ondeveloping discussions in high school project-based science classrooms to examine howsuch supports are taken up, dismissed, or modified in practice.