Louca, Loucas T.

In this paper we investigate the ways that a graphical and a textual Computer-based Programming Environment (CPE) support student inquiry in science during scientific modeling. We analyzed the conversations of 78 sixth-graders (39 students per CPE group) that took place during the construction of models, as well as, student-constructed models specifically looking for ways that CPEs support student scientific inquiry. Our findings showed that CPEs enable students to develop models of physical phenomena and operationally define physical entities and physical properties, which provides students with a commonly shared language for communicating and understanding each others' ideas in science. We also found that programs in CPEs produce a computer microworld that is a structured environment learners can use to explore and manipulate a rule-generated universe, subject to particular assumptions and constraints that serve as representations of aspects of the natural world. Microworlds can also provide learners with opportunities to manipulate realities in ways that learners cannot do with physical objects. Implications from this study suggest productive features for computer-based tools that can be embedded in web-based learning platforms for supporting students' inquiry and science learning.

We investigate how a teacher's personal reflection shapes her decision-making process in classroom management. Following open coding, we analyze the teachers' reflections seeking to identify her rationale in the decision-making process during the language arts lessons. Our findings indicated that her thinking was based on the student's behavior, the student's personality, the educational context, her own emotional perspective and condition, her pedagogical knowledge, and her reflective experience. We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications.

This is a case study describing the ways I engaged a group of 20 5-6,5-year-old children in an afternoon, distance, science education unit investigating snails. The study took place during the Covid-19 quarantine time in Spring 2020. The paper demonstrates the transferability of pedagogical ideas usually implemented in the face-to-face classroom. It also illustrates pedagogical ideas that were more productive to use during the online unit. Lastly, it describes the development of an online learning community that included children and parents.

Despite its proven added value, Modeling-based Learning (MbL) in science is not commonly incorporated into early grades. My purpose in this study was to provide detailed descriptions of the implementation of MbL with a group of 18 pre-K children, engaged in the study of solution of substances in water. The findings suggest that participants could successfully engage in authentic MbL activities, being able to develop a number of different models using prior knowledge and experiences, as well as a variety of features of both analogical and mechanistic reasoning. © 2020 International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS).

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to better understand the characteristics of Teacher Professional Learning Communities(TPLCs) of pre-service teachers(PsTs). Data were derived from 2 TPLCs in which 15 PsTs volunteered to participate, within the context of a pre-school Science Education course they were enrolled in. We analyzed transcripts of videotaped TPLC meetings following the thematic analysis approach. Our findings provide insights about how this group of PsTs utilized opportunities for professional growth.

This paper explores the experiences of 14 early years educators who participated in a continuing professional development (CPD) programme coordinated by two of the paper’s authors. The programme was part of a three-year research project, which aimed at introducing early childhood educators to an inquiry-based approach to mathematics and science education and involved participants as teacher-researchers and curriculum-makers in cycles of action research. From this CPD experience, teachers appeared to reconceptualize traditional teacher and researcher ‘roles’ in more fluid and equitable ways, leading us to explore characteristics of the programme conducive to this shift. The main data source comprised teacher interviews, supplemented by video-recordings of group meetings, classroom enactment of activities and the facilitators’ field notes. Findings suggest that the shift was encouraged by the gradual formation of a community of practice; a reconceptualization of the ‘practical’; and the epistemology-oriented approach adopted in mathematics and science education. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for early years educators’ professional development, and the problems of the ‘theory–practice’ divide in such development. Furthermore, the discussion stresses the importance of the socio-cultural context in which such projects take place, particularly as these often draw heavily upon international literature.

This symposium addresses methodological issues in studying children's knowledge and learning processes. The class of methods discussed here looks at processes of learning in fine-grained detail, through which a theoretical framework evolves rather than is merely applied. This class of methodological orientations to studying learning processes diverges from more common ones in several important ways: 1) Attention to diverse features of the learning interaction; 2) conducting a moment-by-moment analysis, zooming in on the fine details of the studied processes; 3) rather than proving or applying a theory, the objective is to make theoretical innovations, or to develop a "humble theory." The challenge of using such techniques is that, by their nature, they do not follow a strongly delineated procedure, especially not the usual sort of coding. This symposium attempts to begin addressing the methodological issues by reflecting on several cases of data analysis.

This book is a compilation of edited chapters from different science education disciplines and contexts, aiming to provide resources for the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching/learning (IBST/L), and to highlight ways in which those approaches could be promoted across various contexts. The chapters in the book presented the efforts of a group of science education researchers and practicing science teachers to put theoretical ideas into practice and to bridge the gaps between broad policy perspectives, specific educational realities of local school traditions, and embedded practices ingrained in national educational cultures. In this concluding chapter, we provide a structured overview of the main theoretical ideas discussed throughout the book, seeking to help the reader situate all these efforts within a coherent theoretical framework of what inquiry-based approaches in science education involve and what they require from teachers in terms of knowledge and abilities. We focus on four main topics that appear across the chapters in the book: (1) application of scientific inquiry in authentic learning environments; (2) descriptions of six main theoretical frameworks underpinning IBST/L throughout the book, (i) theory and research in motivation, (ii) self-efficacy, (iii) scientific literacy, (iv) dialogic teaching, (v) the communicative approach, and (vi) the nature of science; (3) presentation of pedagogical content knowledge as a productive framework that can unite efforts for teachers’ professional development in IBST/L as presented in this book; and (4) description of effective strategies for professional development, specifically for helping teachers implement this approach for teaching science.

Despite its proven added value, Modeling-based Learning(MbL) in science is not commonly incorporated into early grades science education. Following a growing body of research on using MbL in early grades, this multi-case study seeks to provide detailed descriptions of the implementation of MbL with 3 groups of pre-K children engaged in the study of three different phenomena, taught by 3 different teachers participating in a professional development program of pre-school science education. Findings across the different cases suggest that participating pre-school children were successfully engaged in authentic MbL activities and developed several different types of models using knowledge and experiences, as well as a variety of features of both analogical and mechanistic reasoning. I use this evidence to argue that (a)different MbL tools may afford different learning opportunities; (b)pre-school children have modeling resources that can use to utilize different tools using MbL in natural ways of young children learning (e.g.,playing).

Despite its proven added value, modeling-based learning (MbL) in science is not commonly incorporated into the early grades. Our purpose in this descriptive case study was to enrich our understanding of how kindergarten children enact MbL by examining these children's constructed models and their accompanying oral descriptions of their models. For this purpose, we adopted a drawing-based modeling approach in which children used annotated drawings to represent their models. The participants consisted of four groups of 5- to 6-year-olds (68 children total) who studied the solution of substances in water. We analyzed child-developed models (artifact analysis) and their oral presentations (discourse analysis), seeking to provide rich, detailed descriptions of the characteristics of these models. Our findings suggest that children in the study developed five different types of models using three different depiction strategies. Our findings also suggest that when developing and presenting their models of a physical phenomenon, our kindergarten children tended to rely on analogical reasoning to identify similar, known situations corresponding to the phenomenon under study. They then invoked mechanistic reasoning to develop representations of the phenomenon under study based on the analogy they used. The spectrum of mechanistic reasoning used by the children, and the analysis of the structure and components of their constructed models serve as evidence suggesting that despite their limited experiences with formal science education, as well as with MbL in science, participating children could successfully engage in authentic MbL activities. We contend that this is aligned with the idea of modeling resources, suggesting that it is more productive to help children to develop more reliable access to modeling resources they already have, even though they are usually not aware of their connection to MbL, such as prior scientific knowledge, experience, and MbL skills. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Association for Research in Science Teaching.