1. Strategies to Establish a Scientific Discourse Community Kaatje Kraft at Mesa Community College What is a Scientific Discourse Community? A scientific discourse community creates a culture that fosters student learning. Students learn to negotiate meaning of and in science by interacting with each other and internally synthesizing a shared understanding. This community develops through extensive student- student interaction by engaging in the process of doing science. This allows student thinking to become transparent, it requires them to explain their thinking to others, re-examine their prior knowledge through peer questions, and give feedback to each other. Students are not performing isolated scientific activities, rather they are linking content to a conceptual framework through thinking, writing, talking, and reflecting on scientific processes (generating data, analyzing experiments, presenting in a public forum, etc..) with each other. By the end of the year/semester, students should function in classroom norms that include taking risks, questioning/challenging scientific presentations and ideas, justifying claims, and creating scientific arguments that are a part of the contextual frameworks of the general subject material. This community is not a complete reflection of an actual scientific community, but one that students and teacher work together to create their own norms and performance expectations appropriate for the classroom. Critical Elements The most critical components to creating a successful scientific discourse community are the following: An inquiry learning environment in which students are able to experience the content in a manner so the nature of science becomes apparent and is explicitly taught. This is a student centered environment where the students are doing, sharing, discussing, questioning, arguing, supporting, respectfully challenging, and negotiating meaning with each other through talking, writing, and reflecting. This is not an isolated experience of learning, but a cooperative and collaborative learning process. The teacher is the facilitator, support, and catalyst for student learning by modeling the process, behavior, and thinking patterns that should be reflected by the students. Geologic Disasters Class This past year, I have revised the approach to my Geologic Disasters Class to focus on case-based studies. I have used this approach in an effort to create a scientific discourse community in my classroom. Class dynamics: almost all of my students are non-science majors fulfilling a science requirement. The class size ranges from 30-50 in any given semester. Many students report that they are “no good at science,” or that they do not like science. Successful strategies (a work in progress) Establishing classroom norms at the beginning of the semester: The first homework assignment: They receive a homework on the first day of class that requires them to post their own thoughts on what classroom/classmate behaviors get in the way of their learning and determine how we as a class should respond. Students generally come up with the same distractions I would (cell phones, talking, arriving late, coming to class unprepared, etc…), but there is greater buy-in to the process when they as a class discuss it first. Another part of their first homework assignment is to meet with me for a 10 minute block of time within that first week. This provides me an opportunity to start to get to know my students, who they are, and also establishes my open door policy. Students have been more willing to come to my office with questions after this initial meeting. Studies have shown that students are more likely to persist in their college education if they feel connected to their learning experience. One of the most effective connections are when students interact with their teachers and peers outside of the classroom (CCSSE, 2006).CCSSE, 2006 Integrating cooperative learning in a lecture class The idea of pair-sharing and working together is established on the first day of class. Students are called on as a group (pair-share partners) in an effort to make talking in front of the class less intimidating. The second day of class, students participate in a group activity that has them moving around and working, talking, debating, and writing together. This helps them to start to meet others outside of their immediate seating area. It establishes the class norm of full participation. The activity starts the conversation about the nature of science and how science is approached in geology (based on the nature of science card exchange game from Cobern & Loving, 1998). The semester continues with jigsaw activities. Students work in groups, present as groups, but are still responsible for individual papers (providing an incentive for individual accountability). Students have opportunities to rate their group mates, so I can make those considerations when forming new groups. Classroom Organizational Systems Clear performance expectations help to ease anxiety about assignments and also decrease common complaints associated with group work. Notebook system: students work out of a class notebook. This notebook is periodically collected and graded. It provides me an opportunity to have a personal dialogue with each student on something as simple note taking skills. But they also respond to reflection questions and this becomes valuable formative assessment. Students setting up their poster and preparing for their poster session References Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), 2006 report at: http://www.ccsse.org/publications/CCSSENationalReport2006.pdf Cobern, W. & Loving, C. (1998). The Nature of Science in Science Education. McComas, W. (ed). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands. Sample Student Response “The biggest interruption comes when one's cell phone rings and they have forgotten to put it on vibrate or silent mode. Not only is it annoying, it also causes the instructor and students valuable time when they have to repeat "Turn your cell phones off" everytime. The next biggest distraction is when your classmates like to begin a conversation after we just had 20 minutes to discuss whatever it was we were covering at the time.” Students preparing their group poster for a class poster session