The city as a research site: Using inquiry with English language learning students in an urban middle school to investigate ecological concepts

The city as a research site: Using inquiry with English language learning students in an urban

middle school to investigate ecological concepts

Xenia Meyer and Barbara A. Crawford Cornell University

Annual NARST Conference, Baltimore, MD, Spring 2008

Problem An increase in English language learning (ELL) students

from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences (Fine, Jaffe-Walter, Pedraza, Futch, and Stoudt, 2007)

Shortage of experienced science educators in urban schools

Need to develop alternative instructional approaches to engage ELL and other diverse student groups in learning science

“Science education is successful only to the extent that science can find a niche in the cognitive and socio-cultural milieu of students.” (Cobern,1993, p. 57)

Inquiry-based instruction may better connect English language learning and other students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to science learning

(Amaral, Garrison, & Klentschy, 2002;

Lee, Buxton, Lewis, & LeRoy, 2006)

Theoretical Frameworks

Teaching Science as Inquiry (Dewey, 1914; AAAS, 1990; NRC, 1996,

2000)

Cultural and Instructional Congruency (Lee & Fradd, 1998; Lee, 2002; Luykx &

Lee, 2007)

Science as Inquiry National Science Education Standards (NSES)

Student Performance Indicators of Inquiry:• Engaging in scientifically oriented questions; • Giving priority to evidence in responding questions; • Formulating explanations from evidence;• Connecting explanations to scientific knowledge;• Communicating and justifying findings

(National Research Council [NRC], 2000, p. 29).

Cultural Congruency

Build upon students’ cultural understandings by

providing students with the opportunity to bring their

diverse experiences into the classroom (Lee, 2002).

Inclusive of cultural differences (i.e. language, home

culture, response time, etc.)

Instructional Congruency

Sharing scientific authorityBringing in diverse cultural

experiences and materialsUsing students’ home language in

classroomsProviding linguistic scaffolding to

enhance meaning (Luykx & Lee, 2007)

Context: Eastern Middle School

Dual language middle school in New York City

Provides bilingual instruction to nearly 180 Latino Spanish-speaking and English language learning (ELL) students at the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade-levels

School site recently developed a curriculum based on inquiry and integrated ecological concepts

Curriculum The school engages in an “Integrated Projects Month” (IPM), where teachers and student groups participate in local ecological investigations over a 3-4 week period.

Students research and present their findings to other classmates at the same grade level. Students are evaluated using alternative assessments. Instruction includes components of math, literacy, and learning about historical context embedded into science learning

IPM topic examples: investigating water quality in Central Park, waste in NYC, the composting process, using green design, etc.

Case StudyThe nature of instruction and implementation of an inquiry-based instructional unit by a novice teacher in a culturally and linguistically diverse urban middle-school classroom.

Method

Participant observation case study in collaboration with the focus science teacher (Merriam, 1988; Yin, 1984/1989)

The TeacherBeth, a first-year 7th grade teacheremergency-credentialed to teach science

Undergraduate degree in Natural Resources

Bilingual in Cantonese

Participated in a professional development program focused on integrated curriculum development and inquiry

The Teacher, Her Students, and Her Peers Beth taught one group of 11 students, and she

collaborated with two other teachers in the Discovery concept group.

Beth’s student group investigated Green Design and alternatives for improving their school site in smaller student groups of 3 and 4.

The larger concept group used a collaboratively planned the curriculum unit and participated in a weekend retreat, and field-trips to a local landfill and another school with a rooftop garden

Research Questions

To what extent did this teacher use an inquiry-based approach in her classroom?

To what extent was her teaching approach instructionally congruent?

In what ways, if any, did ELL students engage in science learning?

Data Interviews with the teacher before the

instructional unit Observations of instruction for ten

days Videotaped lessons Field notes Tape-recorded student group interactions

Conversations with students and student surveys

Video segment: June 12th, 2008 in classroom. Students report out findings on school issues and teacher frames project for further research (54:28).

Data Analyses

Content analysis of transcripts using components of the framework for instructional congruence (Luykx & Lee, 2007)

Content analysis of transcripts using National Science Education Standards (National Research Council: 1996, 2000)

Findings: Teacher’s views of inquiry “When it comes to science, it’s about the process

of investigation and how they’re able to research on their own and investigate on their own.”

(lines 16-17, June 8th, 2007)

“Let’s say they have questions that they wonder about… why the sky is blue?.... and instead of looking for one resource, such as the teacher… they go out on their own and try to find it… that is science… you know.” (lines 17-20, June 8th, 2007)

Findings: Scientific authority in the classroom Beth recognized the need to make scientific

ways of questioning explicit to students and allowing space for student-driven questions, and connecting to student’s own experiences.

Transcript excerpt:Some of them really need to come up with questions… just… I think that they don’t think they have any questions about the world… sort of… about, like, why does this happened… it doesn’t occur to them that they have such questions… and so science is sort of a way to open that up a little more…

(June 8th, 2007, lines 24-28)

Findings: Components of inquiry- justifying

Analisa: This is our green roof.Researcher: Okay, and what have you got there?Analisa: This is leaves from the garden which is supposed to be grass, [okay] and then this is solar panels to get energy from the sun, so it’s using less energy and making less pollution

(June 19th, 2007, Lines 14-18)

Findings: diversity of cultural experiences

Students’ experiences outside of school brought into planning for urban

design. Site visits to local landfills, parks, and urban

buildings with Green Design provided students with a common context for

discussion and reflection.

Findings: Integrating culture and experience “Like, in the other school- you went, right?

(yeah) we saw the recycle and the green can and the blue can and we could use a lot of those for you know, the cafeteria and you know, if you just like—when we went to Camp M, we learned that leftovers, you could use them for that and that’s a good way to restore whatever we don’t like or whatever we don’t want.”

(June 19th, 2007, Lines 74-94)

Findings: Students engaged When asked how they would rate the

experience of researching, designing, and building their own projects during the IPM, 9/10 responded that they liked it a lot.

Student comments in response to the open-ended survey question “What did you like best about doing a research project?”:

“I LOVED it when we finally started building our green buildings”

“Designing my own building” “Models that my partners and I built”

Findings: Overall

First-year teacher used guided-inquiry in the classroom; however, instruction did not demonstrate the instantiation of complete inquiry.

Classroom environment supported certain aspects of cultural congruence during instruction; however instructional congruence in science and nature of science was not made explicit.

Implications for Science Teacher Education

Collaboration with other teachers supported this teacher in developing curriculum.

More support is needed during implementation of inquiry-based instruction for novice teachers.

Teacher educators should provide teachers with frameworks, such as the instructional congruency framework of Luykx & Lee (2007), to help teachers understand components of inquiry-based and instructionally congruent strategies.

Further Research–

The impact of inquiry-based instruction and instructionally congruent strategies on ELL student performance in science

To what extent participation in an authentic scientific investigation supports English language development for high school students

Xenia Meyer Doctoral Student, Cornell [email protected]

Barbara Crawford Associate Professor, Cornell University [email protected]

Cornell University