Designing Communities: 3 (Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, 3) - Softcover

Roth, Wolff-Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0792347048 ISBN 13: 9780792347040

Publisher: Springer, 1997

Synopsis

The study described in this book arose in the contextof a three-year collective effort to bring about change in science teaching at Mountain Elementary School. 1 This opportunity emerged after I contacted the school with the idea to help teachers implement student-centered science teaching. At the same time, the teachers collectively had come to realize that their science teaching was not as exciting to children as it could be. They had recognized their own teaching as textbook-based with little use of the "hands-on" approaches prescribed by the provincial curriculum. At this point, the teachers and I decided that a joint project would serve our mutual goals: they wanted assistance in changing from textbook-based approaches to student-centered activities; I wanted to collect data on learning in student-centered knowledge­ producing classroom communities. I brought to this school my new understandings about classroom communi­ ties from several earlier studies conducted in a private high school (e. g. , Roth & Bowen, 1995; Roth & Roychoudhury, 1992). I wanted to help teachers create science learning environments in which children took charge of their learning, where children learned from more competent others by participating with them in ongoing activities, and teachers were responsible for setting up and maintaining a classroom community rather than for dissem­ inating information. After I had completed the data collection for the present study, I watched a documentary about an elementary school in the small French village of Moussac (Envoye Special, TV5, September 14, 1994).

About this title

Product Description

Designing Communities Employs a set of theoretical frames to yield a panorama of research findings having interest for educational researchers, policy makers, teacher educators and K-12 teachers. This book shows that student learning is not only a result of individual sense-making efforts but involves interactions between living and artifactual components. Full description

Synopsis

The book employs a rich set of theoretical frames to yield a panorama of research findings having potential interest for educational researchers, policy makers, teacher educators and K-12 teachers. Roth's ideal science classrooms feature creative and inquisitive students working together to solve problems that interest them. More learning occurs at centers of high pupil density and students who participate most in on-task activities are not necessarily those who contribute or learn most. Roth identifies weaknesses of assessment based on products only and highlights the advantages of using videotapes as sources for assessment. Roth shows that student learning is not only a result of individual sense-making efforts but involves interactions between living and artifactual components of a community of participants.'This book promises to be a turning point for science educators involved in social constructivist reform; they will be challenged to reconsider the gloss that they have painted over the social dimension of knowledge construction.' - Peter C. Taylor, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792347048
• ISBN 13: 9780792347040
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336