Creating Scientific Communities in the Elementary Classroom

It is commonplace today to read about the importance of collaborative, hands-on science. But can we assume that children build knowledge simply through their interactions with materials and each other? How can we be sure that students are engaged in meaningful and productive scientific inquiry? In Creating Scientific Communities, two classroom teachers and two university researchers reveal what a better understanding of early scientific literacy can tell us.

Based on transcripts of classroom conversations and samples of children's writing, Creating Scientific Communities looks at the social context of the elementary classroom and its impact on science teaching and learning. In lessons structured much like those in a writers workshop, group work in science is bracketed by whole class meetings, providing numerous opportunities for students to construct meaning through dialogue with each other and their teacher. Throughout the lessons, the teachers use a variety of discourse strategies - including questioning, modeling, and dialogue journals - to support, extend, and ultimately assess their students' understanding.

An approach to scientific inquiry that centers on group work and dialogue is necessarily unpredictable. Teachers must be purposeful, yet flexible, and collaboration must be guided by shared rules and norms. In Creating Scientific Communities, you will witness how these teachers and researchers collaborated to develop classroom environments in which students learn more than scientific concepts and procedural skills, they acquire the values and attitudes associated with successful scientific collaboration.

Booknews

Two classroom teachers and two university researchers look at the context of the elementary classroom and its impact on science teaching and learning. Transcripts of classroom conversations and samples of children's writing show how a variety of strategies<-->including questioning, modeling, and dialogue journals<-->were used to support, extend, and ultimately assess students' understanding. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

A former elementary teacher and educational consultant, Maureen Reddy is currently a faculty member in the education department at Clark University, where she works closely with teachers in the Clark-Worcester Public Schools K-16 Collaborative.

A fourth-grade teacher at the Goddard School of Science and Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, Patty Jacobs was a Hiatt Fellow at the Jacob Hiatt Center for urban Education at Clark University. While at Goddard, Jacobs has been involved in several initiatives exploring and extending hands-on science curriculum, which emphasize science talk and habits of mind.

Caryn McCrohon began her career as a teacher and teacher-researcher over six years ago. McCrohon is a certified Complex Instruction teacher trainer and currently teaches third grade at the Goddard School of Science and Technology.

Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl is a developmental psychologist who has worked extensively with teachers in Massachusetts and Washington. Recipient of a McDonnel Postdoctoral Fellowship, Herrenkohl is currently an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington.