The role of text in supporting and extending first-hand investigations in guided inquiry science.

Calls for inquiry-based science instruction recommend students engage in knowledge construction through meaningful experiences that are authentic representations of the work of scientific communities. Though recommendations have focused on children's engagement in investigations of natural phenomena as a reaction to textbook-only instruction, completely removing texts from science instruction is not authentic to the scientific enterprise, nor advantageous to students who are learning to read informational texts. The integration of text into inquiry science instruction is a complex endeavor: the nature of the texts, their position within cycles of inquiry, purposes of text, and teachers' mediation of text use must be considered in the context of an inquiry classroom. This study examines the development of children's substantive and syntactic understandings as text-based investigations are incorporated into Guided Inquiry science instruction in two fourth-grade classrooms, and the extent to which the classes develop an inquiry orientation to text use. This study uses microgenetic analyses of children's discourse in whole class discussions about first- and second-hand investigations, and assessments of student's content understandings to trace the development of students' understandings over an entire program of study. Results indicate that students' understandings of the nature of light surpass expectations from previous research for this age group. Students' understandings of the nature of scientific activity show improvement in their ability to represent data, their understandings of the general processes of investigation, and to some extent, their use of evidence to support claims. However, their ability to discuss the phases of their investigations at a metacognitive level is limited. The use of texts in the genre of a scientist's notebook afforded opportunities for students to engage in inquiry processes while conducting text-based investigations. Students learned to read and interpret text and graphical representations of data, to critically evaluate a scientist's claims made from her data, and to apply the information in the texts to their own developing understandings. Students held a skeptical view of the information found in the texts, which is authentic to the practices of expert scientists. This study shows the possibilities for the use of texts in elementary science classrooms as sites for critical analysis in inquiry fashion. The notebook texts afford many opportunities for teachers and children to sustain their inquiry orientation as they move between first- and second-hand investigations.PhDEducationElementary educationScience educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131887/2/9938434.pd