Developing scientific communities in classrooms: A sociocognitive approach

The focus of this research is the role and value of scaffolding student discussions in advancing students' ability to co-construct theories and models from data they have collected while investigating floating and sinking. Three principles, derived from a sociocognitive perspective on science teaching and learning, undergird this instruction: (a) engaging students in reasoning practices in science, (b) offering explicit guidance on the roles students can assume to monitor their own and their peers' thinking, and (c) fostering a sophisticated epistemology of science by having students experience science as a process of revision. The participants were members of a Grade 3/4 split-level gifted class and a Grade 5 class in an urban district. Instruction occurred over a 10-week period, in which students worked in small-group and whole-class contexts to develop and refine explanations for floating and sinking. Pre- and postassessment data revealed changes in children's conceptual understanding, as well as changes in their beliefs about the nature of scientific problem solving. The primary data were transcripts of whore-class discussions that were analyzed to reveal how children's notions of theorizing evolved over the course of the program of study through a process of negotiation that was significantly guided by the teachers, supported by the roles that students assumed, and assisted with the use of an array of tools, such as theory and question charts, as well as the investigative activity itself.