The Role of Writing in Creating a Science Learning Community. Elementary Subjects Center Series No. 56.

At the same time that educators and researchers are identifying ways in which major reform and restructuring is needed in schools, research on student learning in science (and other subjects) from constructivist and conceptual-change perspectives is suggesting the potential for significant improvements in students' understanding of science and science concepts. This study represents an intersection between a school-reform effort and a classroom study of science teaching and learning. Working collaboratively as part of an effort to create a school-university professional development school, the researchers in this study included university researchers and elementary school teachers. The teachers' professional time was restructured so that they were teaching half time and participating in research and teacher-education efforts half time. The focus of the research team's study was teaching and learning in a fifth-grade science classroom. The teacher in this classroom was a university science-education researcher. Thus, the study explored a research approach in which researchers took on teacher roles and teachers took on researcher roles. The focus of the study of this team of teacher-researchers was the role of writing and classroom discourse in supporting student understanding in science: What roles do writing and discourse play in promoting science understanding? This question was explored across four months of instruction designed to promote students' conceptual change, using daily observations of teaching, analysis of student writing, teacher reflections, and interviews with students to trace student thinking and the role that writing and discourse played in student learning. The collaborative nature of the research led to the development of a new research direction as the study progressed: What kind of learning community is needed to support learning in science? What role does writing play in creating a learning community in science classrooms? The paper presents both a contextual and a theoretical framework for the study, a description of six students' writing during one unit of instruction, and a description of one lesson segment that illustrates the relationship between private writing and public discourse in this science classroom. Discussion focuses on the roles that writing played from both the teacher's perspective and the students' perspectives and the contributions that writing made to the development of a science-learning community in this classroom. THE ROLE OF WRITING IN CREATING A SCIENCE LEARNING COMMUNITY Kathleen J. Roth with Cheryl Rosaen, Corinna Hasbach, Constanza Hazelwood, Kathleen Peas ley, Elaine Hoekwater, and Barbara Lindquist' At the same time that educators and researchers are identifying ways in which major reform is needed in schools, research on student learning has revealed students' tremendous potential for understanding concepts and using skills required to participate fully as literate members of society (Ball, 1990; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Driver, 1987; Lampert, 1988; Lemke, 1988; Michaels & O'Connor, 1990). When research on teaching for understanding in the various subject matter areas is shared with practicing teachers, it is not uncommon to hear comments like the following: "That sounds great for those kids, but the kids in my class would never be able to do that. " "OK, let's go back to reality now. " "Are these kids gifted? " "My kids don't kncw enough to have a discussion like that. " "My students would never be that interested in a topic like where food for plants comes from. " "How did the kids sit through such a long discussion without misbehaving? " "Who was watching those kids who were working independently while the teacher had a conference with one student? " "I can't picture my children talking to each other about science like that. " "I don't understand math well enough to lead that kind of discussion. ' In many ways these questions and comments can be discouraging to researchers because they point out the painful reality that mere research findings do not necessarily inform or support 'athleen Roth, assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, is a senior researche. with the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects working on the Literacy in Science and Social Studies Project at Elliott Elementary School. Cheryl Rosaen, assistant professor of teacher education at MSU, is also a senior researcher with the Center working on the LISSS Project. Corinna Hasbach, Constanza Hazelwood, and Kathleen Peas ley are doctoral candidates in teacher education at MSU and are research assistants with the Center working on the LISSS Project. Elaine Hoekwater, Carol Ligett, and Barbara Lindquist are teachers at Elliott Elementary School, Holt, Michigan, and are participating in the LISSS Project. The Project is one of several collaborative projects at Elliott, an MSU Professional Development School. In this project, the authors have blurred the traditional lines drawn between university research on teaching and classroom teaching in schools, taking on the role of teacher-researchers who work to conduct research in and for teaching. They are all working to improve and study their practice. ways to bring about change in classroom teaching practices. As a university researcher I became interested in finding ways to conduct classroom research in collaboration with experienced teachers so that researchers could move beyond the role of outsiders coming in to tell teachers what research has to say about classroom teaching. I am convinced that classroom teachers can and should share in the role of developing new knowledge that will inform and suggest ways to improve teaching practice; researchers and classroom teachers can join together to do research fig teaching (CochranSmith & Lytle, 1990; McLaughlin, 1990; Noddings, 1986; Power, 1990). Two years ago I began working with a group of educators that included two university researchers, three doctoral students, and three classroom teachers in a project called Literacy in Science and Social Studies (LISSS). In this project we have been exploring ways to teach for understanding in science and social. studies, with an emphasis on studying ways in which discourse and writing can be used effectively to promote understanding. In the second year of the project, the group participants each took on a teacher-researcher role to learn new ways to study students' thinking in a classroom setting and to study our own teaching practice.2 In Barbara Lindquist's fifth-grade classroom, I taught science in the fall while Lindquist assisted in data collection and reflection on I teaching. We investigated what is possible in terms of student learning when a conceptual change model of teaching science3 is used consistently across time and the role writing could play in teaching for understanding in science. This line of inquiry was undertaken to investigate the following: a. What are the kinds of understandings, skills, and dispositions students can develop over time when a conceptual change model is used to guide science instructional planning and teaching? 2Due to space limitations, this paper only discusses the teacher-researcher roles that two of the eight project participants took on. The first author wants to acknowledge joint contributions of all project participants in developing the ideas regarding learning community and teaching for understanding that are discussed in this paper. 3Ways in which we conceptualized this model and its research base will be described in greater detail later in the paper.