Listen to a fifth-grader’s explanation of how a flashlight lights up at the start and end of a science unit. Consider the rich experiences and forms of reasoning he draws on throughout, and the ways in which the unit supports him in revising aspects of his thinking.
Eliciting students’ knowledge and experiences, and supporting students in working with these ideas over time and coordinating them with additional ideas and experiences, can promote meaningful sensemaking and an understanding that ideas evolve in science.
See how iterating on an explanation can support the development of student understanding: Novak, A. M., & Treagust, D. F. (2022). Supporting the development of scientific understanding when constructing an evolving explanation. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 4(3).
Using Science Theater as a format for student explanations.
This case study describes how a school district intentionally designed PL to support teachers in integrating translanguaging and multimodal representations when eliciting students’ ideas.
In this resource, we feature three stories about instructional coaching to show a variety of ways educators support the professional learning for ambitious and equitable teaching and learning.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1907471 and #1315995