Teacher Scaffolding Strategies to Transform Whole-classroom Talk into Collective Inquiry in Elementary Science Classrooms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v66i3.56957Abstract
Inquiry-based teaching has been emphasized to enhance students’ knowledge and skills and create a culture of science in science classrooms. Many teachers understand inquiry as hands-on activities, and under the pressure of content-based curriculum, they plan hands-on activities to develop students’ science content knowledge described in the curriculum. This leads to science teaching as scripted performance-based teaching rather than creative and co-constructive knowledge building and problem solving. To develop inquiry abilities, students need opportunities to critically and constructively share and discuss their ideas, reasons, and alternatives in problem-solving contexts beyond managing experiments. Whole-classroom talk has been recognized as a cognitive and social tool to create a joint space of learning when teachers go beyond the traditional ground rules of the Initiation-Response-Follow-up/Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRF/IRE) approach in classroom interactions. This study investigates examples of teacher scaffolding during whole-class discussion where an elementary teacher attempts to connect and expand hands-on activities with knowledge building, reasoning and problem-solving. This study examines specific scaffolding strategies used by the teacher during whole-class discussion and explores how the strategies develop a co-constructive learning community for students to enhance their knowledge, reasoning and problem-solving skills. The study employed a descriptive and explanatory case study model to look closely at a Grade 5-6 classroom over 4 months, with a specific focus on the dynamics of student and teacher interactions during classroom activities and discussions. During the course of the study, one teacher and 23 students worked on the science unit of electricity and electromagnetism. All science classes were video and audio taped and later transcribed to analyze the classroom talk, the teacher’s scaffolding strategies, and students’ learning. Research findings show that the teacher continuously demonstrated the strategies of a) probing and expanding the boundaries of thinking, b) developing collective reasoning and problem solving, and c) participating and modeling the inquiry process with students. These scaffolding strategies distributed the agency of reasoning and problem solving in a collective learning community and encouraged students to become knowledge inquirers and problem solvers. The study describes the pedagogical implications of whole-classroom talk through a discussion about how these strategies are related to and different from the widely practiced IRF/IRE approach in order for teachers to reflect and transform the practice of classroom talk into inquiry-based teaching.
Keywords: Teacher scaffolding, collective inquiry, whole-classroom talk, elementary science
On a favorisé l’apprentissage fondé sur l’enquête comme approche pour rehausser les connaissances et les habiletés des élèves et pour créer une culture de la science dans les cours de science. Plusieurs enseignants perçoivent l’enquête comme consistant en des activités pratiques et, sous la pression du curriculum basé sur le contenu, ils organisent des activités pratiques pour développer chez les élèves les connaissances en sciences selon le contenu décrit dans le programme d’étude. Cela mène à un enseignement des sciences qui est structuré et ancré dans la performance, plutôt qu’au développement créatif and collaboratif des connaissances et des capacités en résolution de problèmes. Afin de développer des compétences en enquête, les élèves ont besoin d’occasions de partager et de discuter, de façon critique et collaborative, leurs idées, leurs motifs et leurs solutions aux problèmes dans des contextes qui dépassent celui des expériences gérées. Les discussions impliquant la classe dans son ensemble sont reconnues comme étant un outil cognitif et social qui crée un espace d’apprentissage partagé quand les enseignants vont au-delà de l’approche traditionnelle d’initiation-réponse-suivi et initiation-réponse-évaluation pour gérer les interactions en classe. Cette étude se penche sur des exemples d’échafaudage pendant une discussion impliquant l’ensemble de la classe où un enseignant à l’élémentaire tente de faire le lien entre les activités pratiques d’une part et le développement des connaissances, de la capacité de raisonnement et des aptitudes en résolution de problèmes d’autre part. Cette étude examine des stratégies d’échafaudage spécifiques qu’emploient les enseignants pendant les discussions impliquant l’ensemble de la classe et explore la façon dont ces stratégies mènent au développement d’une communauté d’apprentissage collaborative où les élèves augmentent leurs connaissances, leur capacité de raisonnement et leurs habiletés en résolution de problèmes. L’étude repose sur un modèle d’étude de cas descriptive et explicative pour examiner une classe de 5e-6e pendant 4 mois, en portant surtout attention à la dynamique des interactions entre les élèves et l’enseignant pendant les activités et les discussions en classe. Au cours de l’étude, un enseignant et 23 élèves ont travaillé sur une unité en science portant sur l’électricité et l’électromagnétisme. Tous les cours de science ont été enregistrés sur bande vidéo et sonore et ensuite transcrits et analysés pour les conversations en classe, les stratégies d’échafaudage employées par l’enseignant et l’apprentissage des élèves. Les résultats de recherche indiquent que l’enseignant a constamment employé les stratégies suivantes: a) explorer et repousser les limites de la réflexion, b) développer la résolution de problèmes et le raisonnement collectifs, et c) montrer le processus d’enquête aux élèves et y participer. Ces stratégies d’échafaudage ont distribué les capacités de raisonnement et de résolution de problèmes dans une communauté d’apprentissage collectif et elles ont encouragé les élèves à devenir des chercheurs de connaissances et des personnes capables de résoudre des problèmes. L’étude décrit les retombées pédagogiques des discussions impliquant toute la classe et ce, en discutant des similarités et des différences entre les stratégies d’échafaudage et l’approche courante d’initiation-réponse-suivi et initiation-réponse-évaluation. Cette discussion se veut une invitation à la réflexion aux enseignants afin qu’ils transforment la pratique des discussions en classe en un enseignement reposant sur l’enquête.
Mots clés : échafaudage par les enseignants, enquête collective, discussion impliquant toute la classe, science à l’élémentaire
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