Teachers’ Facilitation of Classroom Science Discussions

We examined audio and video recordings of classroom science discussions in Grades 4 and 5 as teachers participated in the Talk Science professional development program and implemented the Inquiry Project curriculum. The purpose of this analysis was to study changes in the culture of science talk in classrooms as teachers conducted science discussions to support students’ reasoning.

Here we present findings from the analysis of teachers’ facilitation of and students’ participation in classroom discussions.