Talking Science:Getting students involved in the

conversation

Diane Silva Pimentel

Lynch School of Education

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

Short List of Science teacher Objectives

• Teaching Content Standards

• Maintaining Discipline

• Improving Reading Comprehension

• Improving Writing skills

• Performing Classroom Routines

• Improving classroom discussion

Talking ScienceWhy it’s important

• M. A. K. Halliday (2006) –• Science language – “meaning-making resource”• One way of understanding the world

• Lemke (1990) – student learn to talk science by• “Speaking it with those who have already

mastered it”• “Employing it for the many purposes for which it

is used”• For many students, the classroom is the only

opportunity they will have to practice this type of talk.

Challenges – Whole-class discussions

• Students come into high school lacking discussion skills.

• Students are not comfortable discussing their ideas in a class setting.

• It’s hard to keep the entire class focused on the discussion.

• As the teacher, I find it difficult to guide the discussion “real-time”.

Advantages- Whole-Class Discussions

• Giving students the chance to practice science talk with the guidance of a teacher.

• Allows teacher to highlight key ideas all students should be taking from the lesson or investigation

• Immediate feedback on the meaning students are taking from the lesson.

• Building a sense of community

Question

What are the characteristics of a good class discussion?

Sample discussionTeacher: Okay. So if we talk about having a question,

something that you as a scientist are going to research, think about what is a good example of something in your question that you want to have to make it a strong question.

Mario: It should be interesting.

Teacher: Yeah. People should care. It should be interesting. You could have the most perfect questions that highlights all these different things that you never thought about but if no one cares, nobody’s going to read it. What’s something else in a research question you look for?

Terri: Making sense.

Teacher: Making sense. It should be not only interesting but it should be logical. You shouldn’t ask a question that has no basis

Sample Discussion Teacher: Let me ask this. Can someone tell me why this

is a good question? How does the presence of trees affect daytime temperatures in the city?

Latisha: Specific

Teacher: It’s very specific. I can give you a thermometer and point to some trees and you can go through the city and measure this. You could find out the answer if you sit their long enough.

Student Response Types

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Researchable Questions

Code 3Code 2Code 1Code 0

Teacher 1 Teacher 2 Teacher 3 Teacher 4 Teacher 5

Level 3

1/79 4/128 6/149 2/118 0/32

What is the Goal?

• To hear the “right” answer.

• To understand student thinking

• To have students make meanings for the concepts being learned

Setting The Stage

• Beginning of the year• Stressing the importance of just contributing to the

conversation.

• Asking students to elaborate on their answers.

• Reserving immediate evaluation of student answers• Get some other student contributions before giving

feedback

• Allowing students to contribute their ideas.• Difficult with time constraints due to content

“coverage”

strategies• Pre-discussion

• Writing prompt• Pair-share

• During discussion• Increasing awareness of teacher questions

• Closed questions (have a limited number of correct responses)• List, define, state, explain, etc.

• Example: What are the characteristics of a good research question?

• Open Questions (many possible answers are acceptable)• Evaluate, interpret, etc.

• Example: Keeping in mind the characteristics that we listed, would you consider this a good research question? Why or why not?

• Example: Okay. What can we do to make this question more specific?

Strategies

• Choosing students who may or may not have their hands raised.

• Making time for discussion• Usually part of the end of a lesson – may be

rushed• Examples

• Reading a text- focusing on vocabulary and comprehension

• Finishing up a laboratory or field investigation – summarizing key points instead of discussing student understandings of the data.

Video Case Analysis

• Videotaping the class.• Are you doing what you think you’re doing?• Who’s participating?• What kind of questions are you asking?• What kinds of responses are the students giving

you?• What kind of feedback (verbal and non-verbal)

are you giving to the class?• What were the positive aspects of the

discussion?• What’s one thing you would try differently next

time?