Alandeom W. Oliveira

Developing Elementary Teachers’ Understandings of Hedges and Personal Pronouns in Inquiry-Based Science Classroom Discourse

This study examined the effectiveness of introducing elementary teachers to the scholarly literature on personal pronouns and hedges in classroom discourse, a professional development strategy adopted during a summer institute to enhance teachers’ social understanding (i.e., their understanding of the social functions of language in science discussions). Teachers became aware of how hedges can be employed to remain neutral toward students’ oral contributions to classroom discussions, invite students to share their opinions and articulate their own ideas, and motivate students to inquire. Teachers recognized that the combined use of I and you can render their feedback authoritative, you can shift the focus from the investigation to students’ competence, and we can lead to authority loss. It is argued that explicitness, reflectivity, and contextualization are essential features of professional development programs aimed at improving teachers’ understandings of the social dimension of inquiry-based science classrooms and preparing teachers to engage in inquiry-based teacher–student interactions.

Best Practice in Middle-School Science.

Using socio-ecological theory, this study explores best practice (educational practices correlated with higher student performance) in middle-school science. Seven schools with consistently higher student performance were compared with three demographically similar, average-performing schools. Best practice included instructional approaches (relevance and engagement, inquiry, differentiated instruction, collaborative work, moderate amounts of homework, and integration of language literacy and science) and administrative practices (nurturing a climate of opportunity to succeed in science, offering professional development based on data and dialogue, engaging teachers in standards-based curriculum revision and alignment, and recruiting the right fit of teacher). It is argued that best practice entails multiple levels of teaching and administrative praxis that together form a school-wide socio-ecological system conducive to higher performance.

Engaging Students in Guided Science Inquiry Discussions: Elementary Teachers' Oral Strategies.

This study explores how elementary teachers perceive and use engaging oral strategies (i.e., manners of speaking that encourage students to participate and become engaged in science discussions). It is reported that the strategies employed as well as their frequency varied substantially depending upon on the teachers’ grade level and perceptions. While a kindergarten teacher viewed such strategies negatively and employed only a few figurative directives, fourth-grade teachers viewed them positively, frequently resorting to a variety of speech figures, parallel repetition and engaging questions. It is argued that teachers’ engaging oral strategies are multifunctional, serving important social and cognitive functions.

Science Communication in Teacher Personal Pronouns

In this study, I explore how personal pronouns used by elementary teachers during science inquiry discussions communicate science and frame teacher–student–science relations. A semiotic framework is adopted wherein teacher pronominal choices are viewed as symbolically expressing cognitive meanings (scientific thinking, forms of expression, and concepts) and indexically communicating social meanings (hidden messages about social and personal aspects of science—human agency, science membership, and gender). Through the construction of interactional maps and micro‐ethnographic analysis of classroom video‐recordings, I focus specifically on participant examples (oral descriptions of actual or hypothetical situations wherein the teacher presents herself and/or her students as characters to illustrate topics under discussion). This analysis revealed that the teacher use of the generalised you communicated to the students how to mean scientifically (i.e. to speak like a scientist), while I communicated scientific ways of thinking and reasoning. Furthermore, teacher pronouns communicated the social nature of science (NOS) (e.g. science as a human enterprise) as well as multiple teacher–student–science relational frames that were inclusive of some students (mainly boys) but excluded girls (i.e. positioned them as science outsiders). Exclusive use of he was taken as indicative of a gender bias. It is argued that science teachers should become more aware of the range of personal pronouns available for science instruction, their advantages and constraints for science discussions, their potential as instructional tools for humanising and personalising impersonal science curricula as well as the risk of ‘NOS’ miscommunication.

Science Language Accommodation in Elementary School Read-Alouds

This study examines the pedagogical functions of accommodation (i.e. provision of simplified science speech) in science read-aloud sessions facilitated by five elementary teachers. We conceive of read-alouds as communicative events wherein teachers, faced with the task of orally delivering a science text of relatively high linguistic complexity, open up an alternate channel of communication, namely oral discussion. By doing so, teachers grant students access to a simplified linguistic input, a strategy designed to promote student comprehension of the textual contents of childrens science books. It was found that nearly half (46%) of the read-aloud time was allotted to discussions with an increased percentage of less sophisticated words and reduced use of more sophisticated vocabulary than found in the books through communicative strategies such as simplified rewording, simplified definition, and simplified questioning. Further, aloud reading of more linguistically complex books required longer periods of discussion and an increased degree of teacher oral input and accommodation. We also found evidence of reversed simplification (i.e. sophistication), leading to student uptake of scientific language. The main significance of this study is that it reveals that teacher talk serves two often competing pedagogical functions (accessible communication of scientific information to students and promotion of student acquisition of the specialized language of science). It also underscores the importance of giving analytical consideration to the simplification–sophistication dimension of science classroom discourse as well as the potential of computer-based analysis of classroom discourse to inform science teaching.

Teaching Science Through Pictorial Models During Read-Alouds

This study examines how three elementary teachers refer to pictorial models (photographs, drawings, and cartoons) during science read-alouds. While one teacher used realistic photographs for the purpose of visually verifying facts about crystals, another employed analytical diagrams as heuristic tools to help students visualize complex target systems (rainbow formation and human eye functioning). Another teacher used fictional cartoons to engage students in analogical storytelling, communicating animal camouflage as analogous to human “blending in.” However, teachers did not always explicitly convey the representational nature of pictorial models (analog and target as separate entities). It is argued that teachers need to become more aware of how they refer to pictorial models in children’s science books and how to promote student visual literacy.

Student leadership in small group science inquiry

Background: Science educators have sought to structure collaborative inquiry learning through the assignment of static group roles. This structural approach to student grouping oversimplifies the complexities of peer collaboration and overlooks the highly dynamic nature of group activity. Purpose: This study addresses this issue of oversimplification of group dynamics by examining the social leadership structures that emerge in small student groups during science inquiry. Sample: Two small student groups investigating the burning of a candle under a jar participated in this study. Design and method: We used a mixed-method research approach that combined computational discourse analysis (computational quantification of social aspects of small group discussions) with microethnography (qualitative, in-depth examination of group discussions). Results: While in one group social leadership was decentralized (i.e., students shared control over topics and tasks), the second group was dominated by a male student (centralized social leadership). Further, decentralized social leadership was found to be paralleled by higher levels of student cognitive engagement. Conclusions: It is argued that computational discourse analysis can provide science educators with a powerful means of developing pedagogical models of collaborative science learning that take into account the emergent nature of group structures and highly fluid nature of student collaboration.

Language Repair Strategies in Bilingual Tutoring of Mathematics Word Problems.

This study explores the language repair strategies (aimed at repairing communication problems) of two bilingual speakers during mathematics word problem tutoring sessions. Bilingual repair was shown to gradually shift from a linguistic to an epistemic focus during problem solving (i.e., communication became more conceptually focused over time). Linguistic repair involved varied translation techniques (literal and free), whereas epistemic repair entailed gradual refinement of specialized mathematical meanings through intralinguistic communicative strategies such as simplified rewording. It is suggested that understanding language repair may help tutors develop more effective dialogic instructional approaches to the teaching of mathematical word problems to English learners.RésuméCette étude explore les stratégies de résolution langagières (visant à résoudre les problèmes de communication) de deux locuteurs bilingues au cours de sessions de tutorat visant à résoudre des problèmes de langage mathématique. Au résultat, la résolution bilingue est passée graduellement du linguistique à l’épistémique au cours de ces sessions (par exemple, avec le temps, la communication a été de plus en plus centrée sur les concepts). La résolution langagière implique différentes techniques de traduction (littérale ou libre) tandis que la résolution de type épistémique implique un raffinement graduel des signifiés mathématiques spécialisés par le biais de stratégies communicatives intralinguistiques telles que la reformulation simplifiée. À notre avis une meilleure compréhension des questions de résolution langagière pourrait aider les enseignants à mettre au point des approches dialogiques plus efficaces lorsqu’il s’agit d’enseigner aux apprenants anglophones les mots propres au langage mathématique.

Storied Environmental Curriculum: A Case-Based Perspective on Environmental Education

Narrative curricular practices constitute an often neglected feature of environmental education. In response to this issue, the present chapter examines the text structure (i.e., written organization) of two cases developed by biology teachers in Brazil. A narrative analysis revealed that (1) both cases shared common features such as a focus on relatively powerless victims (poor, illiterate, and young) in need of help and tragic plots involving literary representations of death and fear and (2) they differed with regard to features such as structural organization (open vs. closed narrative structures) and positioning of students (external bystanders vs. science experts in charge of solving a problem). The main significance of this study is that it highlights the need for educators to better understand what it means to develop a storied curriculum as well as the implications of narrativizing environmental issues in particular ways.

Evolution Education and the Rise of the Creationist Movement in Brazil

In this chapter, we analyze current educational policies such as the National Curriculum Parameters for Secondary Science Education, commonly used curricula (high school biology textbooks), and publicly available resources (media reports, organizational websites, previous studies, etc.) to ascertain the characterization of evolution education and the rise of the creationist movement in Brazil. Additionally, we provide a historical account of how larger societal forces such as religion and politics have shaped the Brazilian educational landscape over time. Our ultimate goal is to better understand not only what evolution education in Brazil is like but also how it came to be (i.e., the dynamic sociological processes behind its current state). Findings indicate that a lack of understanding about evolution as a unifying theory coupled with vague messages present in curricula and from the Ministry of Education about defining parameters regarding what should be taught in a science classroom can lead to teachers getting caught in the crosshairs of public pressure and creationist propaganda.