LSRI Speaker Series - Audio

Educators seeking to motivate students often do so by inquiring into students’ interests and designing instruction anchored in such interests. This approach is based on psychological theories of individual (long-term) interests, which propose that a person’s extended, self-motivated pursuit of topically related activities flow directly and simply from her relationship to the topic or domain. As an example, a child’s continued engagement with a set of dinosaur-related activities is said to stem from her interest in the topic of dinosaurs.

Standards-based reforms in mathematics education place issues of equity front and center. Indeed, curriculum and instruction that is aligned with national standards appear to lead to more equitable outcomes for students (NCTM, 2000; Schoenfeld, 2002). However, many scholars argue that the reform movement does not go far enough in terms of equity (Apple, 1992; Gutierrez, 2002; Gutstein, 2003). These scholars argue for the importance of "critical mathematics," that is, the infusion of political themes and goals into the standards-based mathematics curriculum. Proponents of critical mathematics claim that such an approach has the potential to be more equitable than standards-based instruction because, for example, it allows students to use mathematics to develop their understandings of personally relevant sociopolitical matters (e.g. racial profiling, gentrification) and what they can do to change them for the better.

Recent advancements in educational technologies have led to an explosion of visualization software for teaching and learning science, particularly chemistry. To varying degrees, visualization tools help teachers and students perceive the imperceptible objects and phenomena of the chemical world. Although some visualization tools have seen great success in the classroom, others have had little impact on student learning and understanding. The present talk explores a novel cognitive model that both motivates the use of computer-based visualization tools for teaching chemistry and explains the variability in learning outcomes that result from their use. First, I argue for a more complete model of teaching and learning in chemistry that empirically defines the role of visualization tools in the classroom. Using data from tandem psychometric and protocol studies, I identify some unique difficulties with learning chemistry that constrain the possible affordances of visualization tools.

Although preservice elementary school teachers (PSTs) have been shown to lack the understanding of multidigit whole numbers necessary to teach in ways that empower students mathematically, little is known about their conceptions. I draw upon the extensive research on children's understanding of multidigit whole numbers to explicate PSTs' conceptions of these numbers. I develop a framework for PSTs' conceptions of multidigit whole numbers and use that framework to describe their conceptions and their difficulties in the context of the standard algorithms. I then link the PSTs' conceptions in the context of the standard algorithms to their performance in other contexts.

The term data visualization is often used to describe computer software or its products. I argue that learning sciences research can benefit from conceptualizing data visualization instead as a mode of shared sense-making, in which the co-construction of meaning is mediated by visual data artifacts. This process can be studied at sociocultural and microgenetic levels of analysis, for purposes of better understanding the multiple literacies and trajectories of learning in which visual data are employed. In this talk I present a microgenetic analysis of these social processes of data visualization in groups of 6th-grade students, evidenced in their emergent discourse practices in small group work over the course of an extended science investigation using visual data. A comparison of two students' patterns of participation in their respective small groups -- each a student with low levels of talk in the group overall -- highlights differences in the construction of roles for non-dominant students with respect to domain discourse around data. Implications for science learning are interpreted in the context of particular concepts and skills evidenced by each student in post interviews.

Decisions, Decisions: Assessing Students' and Preservice Teachers' Use of Scientific Evidence

Scaffolding Students in Writing Evidence-Based Scientific Explanations: Developing evidence-based explanations is a critical aspect of science. Recent science reform documents and efforts advocate that students develop scientific inquiry practices, such as the construction and communication of scientific explanations.

Scaffolding Students in Writing Evidence-Based Scientific Explanations: Developing evidence-based explanations is a critical aspect of science. Recent science reform documents and efforts advocate that students develop scientific inquiry practices, such as the construction and communication of scientific explanations.

Scaffolding Students in Writing Evidence-Based Scientific Explanations: Developing evidence-based explanations is a critical aspect of science. Recent science reform documents and efforts advocate that students develop scientific inquiry practices, such as the construction and communication of scientific explanations.

Scaffolding Students in Writing Evidence-Based Scientific Explanations: Developing evidence-based explanations is a critical aspect of science. Recent science reform documents and efforts advocate that students develop scientific inquiry practices, such as the construction and communication of scientific explanations.