Grade 4 Science Discussions 2011-2012
Introduction
In the third year of our research (2011-2012), we collected audio recordings of concept cartoon discussions from eight Grade 4 teachers. Recordings of pre- discussions were gathered from eight teachers and recordings of post-discussions from six teachers. Of the eight teachers, four teachers — Evan, Hein, Wolf, and Smith — had participated in the Talk Science research in the previous year in 2010-2011 (teacher names appearing in the report are pseudonyms).
As part of the Talk Science professional development, teachers were introduced to a set of academically productive talk moves (APT moves). The APT moves were designed to promote students’ scientific reasoning and co-construction of scientific understandings with peers. The purpose of this analysis was to study teachers’ use of the APT moves to facilitate classroom discussions; students’ engagement in the discussions; and with a subset of teachers who were now participating in the Talk Science program for the second time, we wanted to also compare teachers’ practice over the two years of their experience with the talk moves to support discussions.
