Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Noticing of Scientific Argumentation within Two Online Practice Spaces

Presenters

Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Heidi L. Masters, Jamie N. Mikeska, Meredith M. Thompson, Meredith Park Rogers, Dionne Cross Francis

Abstract

Scientific argumentation discussions enable students to engage in critical sense-making with their peers about investigations. Facilitating these discussions is challenging for elementary preservice teachers (PSTs). One reason for this is their limited experience noticing how teachers facilitate and students respond within argumentation discussions. We provided opportunities for 28 PSTs in two science methods courses to practice noticing instances where they had encouraged argument construction and critique in discussions they facilitated. The discussions occurred in two online practice spaces that approximate real classrooms: Eliciting Learner Knowledge (ELK) and Avatar-Based Simulation (ABS). Ten PSTs participated in our study. PSTs noticed a little over half of the researcher-coded argumentation construction instances in both ELK and ABS. PSTs were more likely to notice instances where they elicited students’ claims and evidence and less likely to notice when they encouraged students to provide justification. The PSTs noticed roughly two-thirds of the researcher-coded prompts related to argumentation critique. They noticed prompts asking students if they agreed with one another but experienced some difficulty noticing when they asked students to convince others or compare arguments. These findings have important implications for teacher educators who support PSTs with learning how to facilitate argumentation discussions.