Angela Calabrese Barton, PhDMichigan State University

July 2010

Support from the National Science Foundation

(HRD 0429109, DRL # 0737642)National Institutes of Health

(NCRR (SEPA) R25 RR020412))

Teaching science for all in low-income urban communities

Overview

• The challenges of teaching science for all in low-income urban communities

• A pedagogical practice that matters: Noticing and leveraging students’ “repertoires of practice” for meaningful science engagement

• Discussion

Framing the Challenge

In the US, low-income urban youth are… • Not performing as well in science (GCCS, 2009)

• Less interest & motivation to pursue science (Gilmartin et al., 2006)

• Less likely to know a professional scientist or engineer (Aschbacher, 2008)

• Less likely to think they are good at or could be a scientist or engineer (Aschbacher, 2008)

• Not moving into science & technology trajectories (NSF, 2008)

Looking at the other side…

6th grade girls: From marginal to central participants…

Melanie

Janis

Janis’ story: Bringing art to science

Beginning of 5th grade• Wants to be a singer

• Has never heard of or met an engineer

• “Loves” English & Music, “hates” Math & Science

• Science is for geeks

• Good student, but disengaged

• “We do the same routine [in science class], every year, over and over and I can’t take that because it’s boring.”

Janis’ changing participation

6th grade

• Joins afterschool club on green energy• Develops technology skills that help

her blend art & science• Uses art to investigate green energy &

to educate others• Creates a digital short that is shown

on television• Creates a science documentary that

contributes to getting a new green roof

• Presents her work to the Mayor and at City Hall

• Helps get the club a new green roof

Janis’ Rap – 3rd placeStatewide competition, age 13-19

Verse 1Just sit down and take a seatOpen your ears and listen to meI gotta tell something that you won’t likeSomethin’ you didn’t know ‘bout your lightsIncandescent light bulbs help global warmingA solution to pollution in this bulb is formingFluorescent light bulbs they do last longerFluorescent bulbs are brighter and are strongerSo give CFLs a try ….And wave those ugly bulbs goodbyeTake aim … at climate change Cut down your bills, it ain’t so strange

Chorus: Do as I doTake and unscrewThrow out the oldAnd put in the new One simple thing you all can doIs change to CFLs, & don’t be a fool

“I’m a make a difference expert”

“We know what we are doing. We know how to make a difference. [We know] how to save energy and how to convince other people of better ways to do things with electricity.”

“The roof is probably the best example because we actually helped the club save money. They spent a lot of money getting the roof but now they have probably already saved enough to get that roof again. In the long run it saved money.”

“It would kinda be hypocritical if you can’t influence your own.”

7th grade: I want to be an engineer

Melanie, at the beginning of 6th grade

• Shy in class, but silly and fun out of class

• “Passing girl”• 23% first quarter and proud of it

- “Look! I got a 23 out of a 100!” • Example: Save the Animals Poster

• Hides behind paper• Leaves most of the reporting to her

partner• Plays the role of the giraffe

We drew the giraffes saying “ I’m hungry! Help us! Help my family! We need trees to eat the leaves!” and the little one, the baby says “Help me! And my Mommy! I’m starving!”

Animal Project on Gorillas

Presented report by impersonating scientist Jane Goodall Met requirements by reporting on habitat,

food and life-cycle of the animal Enlisted help of Pat and Chantell to act as

gorillas while she “taught” them sign language

Her teacher used her report as an example of “how to go above and beyond” “There are many ways to make science

interesting. I like how Melanie told us a story rather than just gave us the facts.”

Received 100% on her report and the presentation.

Melanie’s Changing Experience in Science

Transition in participation• Project participation through “impersonation” and “telling stories”

• 100/100 on both projects• Began to participate through more and different forms of talk

• Telling stories• Answering science questions• Volunteering ideas

Tan, E. & Calabrese Barton A. (2008). From peripheral to central, the story of Melanie’s metamorphosis in an urban middle school science class. Science Education 92(4), 567-590.

Teacher: Melanie’s got the last word.Melanie: Okay… When you go to the D.R, you are one color…Teacher: Listen to her please! *The class was starting to chat*Melanie: When you go to the D.R. from the United States, you are one color, but when you come

back from the D.R, you are another color, a darker color like Kate…

What can we learn from these cases?

• Janis and Melanie entered 6th grade not liking science & not viewed as a “smart” science student

• Over multiple years they moved from peripheral to central participant:– ACHIEVEMENT: Excelled on science projects and exams– RECOGNITION: Viewed by others as an expert– INTEREST: Expressed confidence, capability, and interest in science

“I’m a make a difference expert!”

Why?

Why did Janis and Melanie become more engaged and more successful in science?

A pedagogical practice that matters

• Each had a teacher who noticed and leveraged their cultural knowledge & experience to scaffold participation and learning in science

Mr. M (Melanie’s teacher): “The students that I teach have value. If I give them an opportunity and a safe environment, they’ll rise to the challenge. It is them feeling comfortable and not being intimidated and frightened. I think it goes back to them sensing that what you’re

trying to do for them is valuable, where it’s not abstract and unusable…You don’t know why they are in this high poverty, urban environment, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t as intelligent and

motivated.”

Ways to think about cultural knowledge and experience

• Patterned ways of engaging in activities• Made up of the tools, resources and discourses that individuals

acquire over time and in the different communities in which they participate

• Reflected in identity work

Melanie: A storyteller

Patterned way of engaging in activity: Engaging others through story/narrative

Being a storyteller allowed Melanie to:Play with identities of animals & scientists to try out scientific ideas

learning to talk scientificallyShare personal experiences that expanded content-based conversations

learning to make connections and deepen content explorationsCreate a space for a voice in ways that reduced risk

changing expectations & modes of participation

Janis: An artist

• Making raps (songs) on topics of investigation Initially a “hook” into science

• Creating digital shorts on issues that matter A form of talk for engaging others

• Using art to transform the science investigation A medium of exploration

Patterned way of engaging in activity: Seeing the world through music & art

Leveraging for change

Cultural knowledge and experience can be powerful pedagogical resources for– meaningful science learning– changing participation– identity development

• Studies based upon three large data sets– Urban Girls Science Practices Project (2004-2008;

NSF)

– Choice Control & Change Project (2004-2009, NIH)

– Green Energy Technologies in the City (2007-2011, NSF)

• Investigations of teacher practice during science units on dynamic equilibrium and the human body & body systems and green energy

How might teachers recognize and leverage students’ repertoires of practice?

Research Questions

Across the three studies…• How are youths’ cultural knowledge & experience noticed and

leveraged by teachers in the classroom towards meaningful engagement in science?

• How do teachers create opportunities for cultural knowledge and experience to emerge authentically?

• In what ways does leveraging and noticing youth’s cultural knowledge and experience support students in developing:– Deeper science understandings– Science identities– Empowering forms of participation?

Conceptual Grounding: Sociocultural Studies of Learning

Learning is an embodied activity made evident through changes in participation and identity trajectories (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 2003)

Learning is shaped by the power dynamics that play out in communities of practice (Moje et al, 2001; Gutierrez, 2008)

Learning is both horizontal and vertical (Gutierrez, 2008)

• Vertical and Horizontal dimensions exist dialectically allowing learning to be transformative

• Self-transformative (as individuals learn new knowledge, & Discourses, they take up new identities)

• Socially-transformative (knowledge& practice are co-opted and informed by the knowledge & practice/ individuals bring from “other worlds”

Methodology

Design Experiments (7 teachers)o Reflective study groups with

teachers/students to reflect upon and analyze how pedagogical approaches support student learning

o Collaborative adaptation of curriculumo Study of enactment (observation,

interview, reflections, and pre/post tests) Classroom ethnographies

o Participant observation in and out of schoolo Test scores, report card grades, class assignmentso Interviews, focus group conversations , think aloudso Co-planning, multiple standpoint analysis

Emergent Patterns in Practice

Teachers recognize and incorporate “mediating artifacts” as central to their teaching in order to elicit students’ cultural knowledge & experiences.

Effective use of mediating artifacts allows boundaries between scientific and students’ cultural knowledge and practice to become transparent (accessible) and negotiable (disrupted and transformed)

Mediating artifacts have multiple functions: Supporting students in grappling with scientific ideas in ways that legitimize and account for their cultural positionings

What are mediating artifacts?

• Blur or merge boundaries between science & everyday

• Porous boundaries to allow movement between worlds

• Can be scientific OR everyday tools, objects, practices and representations

• Tangible anchors of students’ personal connections throughout science inquiry

Science• Scientific norms &

routines• Discourses• Patterned ways of

knowing and doing

Youth worlds: cultural knowledge & experience

• Cultural norms and routines

• Discourses• Patterned ways of

knowing and doing

Tangible symbols of a negotiation between the

knowledge and practice of school science & the learner

3 short cases

• Mr. M: Learning about body systems through the bone song

• Mrs. T: Navigating the complex food system through real food and a survey

• Mrs. H: Negotiating practical and reasonable goals with the help of a bar graph

Case 1: Mr M

• Teachers recognize and incorporate “mediating artifacts” as central to their teaching in order to elicit students’ cultural knowledge and practices.

Mr. Moreno

Context

• Mr. M is a white teacher in his late 20s, with 6 years of experience and Science Department Chair, although not certified in science (elementary general certificate)

• School demographics:65% African American and 35% Latino/a

• Located in the poorest congressional district in the “city” (a large east coast city)

• 100% of the students are on the school’s free lunch program

• School is surrounded by convenience stores, fast food restaurants and apartment buildings

• Most students walk to and from school

Ginny’s Bone Song

• End of series of lessons on skeletal system: Test Prep.

• Students to prepare teacher endorsed method of flash cards

• In addition to flash cards, Ginny “wrote” a bone song, using the tune of a popular song (Mambo #5)

• Taught bone song to a few peers who encouraged her to sing it to Mr. M.

Ginny’s bone song

A little bit of cranium on my headA little bit of mandible on my jawA little bit of scapula on my back

A little bit of humerus on this boneA little bit of radius on the backA little bit of ulna on the front

A little bit of carpals just like thatA little bit of meta carpals on my hand

A little bit of phalanges on the endA little bit of tibia on the frontA little bit of fibia on the backA little bit of torso just like that

A little bit of metatarsals on my footA little bit of phalanges on the end

Just wave your phalanges, yeah yeah yeah

Just wave your phalanges, yeah.

How did this experience matter to Ginny?

Deeper Content Understanding• Successful in test, 95/100 • Re-phrasing definitions to fit song phrases• Teaching lyrics to friends akin to additional revision

Identity• Successfully merged her social, pop culture identity with her science

student identity with this product

Increased participation/Agency• Creative talent publicly acknowledged as important learning

resource• Taught lyrics to friends, science class, 6th grade

Teacher• Typed up the song, distributed it to all 5 sections, and hung a copy in the hallway.• Designed a follow on lesson to the song which used the song and dance movement

to focus on structure and function of the skeletal system: support, structure, mobility and protection

• Used bone song in 3 important ways • as an example of how students can be creative in science class• as an opportunity to expand the curriculum• as a pedagogical tool to teach skeletal system following year

Peers• Liked bone song immensely, used it as a learning tool, also scored well on test• Could remember lyrics of bone song three months after the test

How did the Bone Song impact the learning community?

Case 2: Mrs T

• Claim: Effective use of mediating artifacts allows boundaries between scientific and students’ cultural knowledge and practice to become transparent (accessible) and negotiable (disrupted and transformed)

Mrs. Tiller

Context • Mrs. Tiller is an African American teacher

in her 50s and teaches 6th grade science out of field.

• School demographics: 64% students categorized as African American, 21% White, 8% Hispanic.

• Located in a city in Midwestern state that is one of the most economically depressed in the state.

• Surrounding school is a neighborhood with convenience stores & fast food restaurants about a block away.

• Many students walk to and from school, while others take the school bus.

Lesson Overview

• Lesson 2 in a unit on the complex system of influences on food and activity choices

• Learning Goals for lesson: To investigate how taste influences food choices

– To understand humans’ innate biological preference for sweet and fatty foods;

– To describe the relationship between biology and food preferences.

• Lesson Overview

– French Fry visualization & discussion

– Tasting experiment with partners: Taste, record, discuss and build initial theories about human taste preferences

– Reading for LiFE on biology of taste

French Fry Visualization

You are walking down the street and smell French fries cooking at a fast food restaurant. They smell hot and delicious. You and your friends are hungry so you decide to go in and order some food. The French fries smelled so good you decide to order some with your meal. When you get the Fries, they are exactly what you wanted. They taste even better than they smelled! Each one is crispy and satisfying. You eat all your fries.

Mrs: T.: I know what I’m going to do for this lesson. I’m going to get some potatoes and cook up in my classroom some home-made French fries. Just imagine how the smell of those fries will linger in the hallway as they walk to my classroom. I’m even going to let them eat the fries. Savor their taste. Enjoy them. They are going to have to answer those

questions honestly with the fries right there in front of them! (Fieldnotes, PD session)

Mrs. Tiller’s classroom…

• Mrs. Tiller cooked the French fries…and her students entered her class curious, excited, and hungry.

• “OK, who wants fries? Hot, crispy fries? Hmmm. Don’t they smell good? Sit down and raise your hand if you want fries!”

• As she passed out the fries, she re-created the initial visualization scenario

• Mrs. T. then enticed the class, “The smell is just making my mouth water. How about you?” and then asked them to record their observations and to provide a score on the following three questions, on a scale of 1-5 (never to always):

– The smell of foods like French fries make me want to buy and eat them.– I order French fries after smelling them in fast food restaurants– French fries and other fried foods taste really good to me.

“Mmmmm… Now that’s science!”

“Mmmmm… Now that’s science!”

Never -------------------------------- Always1 2 3 4 5

Q1 (want to buy fries?)

1 2 2 6 12

Q2 (buying fries)

1 2 0 3 17

Q3 (taste) 1 2 0 0 20

• Mrs. T. tallied the student responses.

• She began asking questions to encourage her students to talk about the patterns they might detect:

- “Who liked the fries?” - “Did you want to buy the fries?”

• The students keyed in to what they liked about French fries…- “I liked ‘em. They were good.”- “Hot and crispy. I would buy them everyday!”- “The smell just makes my mouth water. How can they be bad for you?”

• Created bar graphs from the chart to represent the data differently…

Mrs. T: Look at my beautiful graphs. It’s nice isn’t it? What do you notice? [pause] Look! Look at how big or little the bars are!

Marla: Well, just about all of us picked 4 or 5 for all of the questions?Mrs. T: That’s right! Our bodies are naturally inclined to want fast food and we are hardwired to want to

eat fries! We want that fatty food!Shawn: Why say fast food is bad if we are supposed to like it?Mrs. T: Great question! Write that down under your observations. Jillian?Jillian: Why did Casey vote that French fries don’t ever taste good, if [the human body] is suppose to

want fatty food?Casey: Hey, my body doesn’t have to like it.Jillian: Yah, but that’s not what [the reading] says.Mrs. T: Ok, Ok. Someone else?Jasmyn: I was just wondering why more people would buy fries than wanted to buy them.Mrs. T: What do you mean?Jasmyn: 12 people wanted to [buy them], but 17 did.Alex: They were gonna buy them anyway. I don’t need smells to tell me what to do.Mrs. T: But what do you think our experiment shows. . . I mean do you think all 19 of you would buy the

fries with out smelling them first?Alex: That they was making money off their smells!Mrs. T: Alex, enough. Marla?Marla: Smell helps us to taste better?Mrs. T: Raise your hand if smell helps you to taste better…

French Fries• “honest answers” & “savor the taste”• animated atmosphere full of student stories

French fries survey data representations: Making Boundaries Transparent• Survey results (Chart): Elicited stories about experiences with fries• Data Representation (Graph): Movement between cultural practices and reasoning with

evidence

French Fry Survey

Biological taste preferences and their intersections with the complex food environment required understandings of students’ cultural practices – what

students cared about and did on a day by day basis, such as eating fries.

Complex conversation: Negotiating new boundaries – what is healthy eating?

• Taste + food preferences + complex environment• Tensions: Mrs T’s movement between…

- Student stories – scientific thinking- Final form science – knowledge in the making

Case 3: Mrs H

• Claim: Mediating artifacts have multiple functions: Supporting students in grappling with scientific ideas in ways that legitimize and account for their cultural positionings

Mrs. Hanson

Context • Mrs. Hanson is a white teacher in her 40s who teaches 6th

grade science.• School demographics: 44% students categorized as African

American, 31% White, 21% Hispanic, 5% Asian/Native American

• Located in a city in Midwestern state that has experienced major economic decline (unemployment ~16%)

• Immediately surrounding the school are convenience stores, fast food restaurants, and local neighborhoods.

• Many students walk to and from school, while others take the school bus.

Overview of Lesson: “Putting it all into play”

Learning goal: To use scientific evidence to make healthy food and activity choices.

Lesson overview:• My Pyramid recommendations

– 5 key practices– Scientific evidence for practices

• Graphing personal serving intakes (24 hour food recall) in five areas

• Using personal data and government guidelines to set up healthy goals

“Last week we were keeping track of the things that we ate and drank. And we talked about Calvin, he kept track of what he ate and drank. And when you did your research project a lot

of you were on websites that showed the food pyramid. Today, we’re going to kind of put that all into play.”

Lesson 12 in unit on dynamic equilibrium in the human body

Setting up the initial graphing activity: personal narrative

Mrs. Hanson:

“In the last 24 hours how many times did you eat at a fast food restaurant? Think about how many times a week you go…. all the way last Wednesday including the weekend, how many times did you recall going to fast food for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack.

You might be like oh yeah, last Saturday we were running around doing some shopping, we stopped at a fast food place for lunch. Or yeah, you know, we stopped and picked up a pizza. Maybe you stopped at McDonalds for breakfast this morning.”

Setting up the initial graphing activity: personal narrative

As students start to record their fast food activities, Rita calls out:

Rita: But sometimes my parents don’t feel like cookin. Mrs H: Alright. Sometimes you know, your folks are like, I’m not cooking tonight. I’m tired. I’ve been working. We’re gonna go out and grab something. Sam: Yah, my mom is tired of cooking and we just go out. And ya know it saves money if you go to the dollar menu.Mrs H: OK. These are the reasons you eat fast food.Sam (calling out): Cause it’s good, too. It’s greasy.Mrs H: Cause it’s greasy? So you like the taste of greasy foods.Marcus (calling out): You can make greasy foods at home!Sam: But not for a dollar!Mrs H: OK. Alright. These are good reasons to think about. But go back to your charts. Now use your totals to make a bar graph for each category. This will let you see how you are doing compared to the [official] recommendations.

Working with data

Mrs. H: Let’s talk about how your graph compared to the recommended amounts. What did you notice about the first graph, which was fruits and vegetables. When you graphed your amount, compared to the recommended amount, what did you notice?

Carl: Mine was more than the recommended amount.

Mrs. H: OK, who has something different for that one? Rita…

Mrs. H: What’d you find?

Jason: Mine was a lot lower.

Mrs. H: Yours was a lot lower. But how much lower?

Jason: Um, mine was 0 instead of 5.

Mrs. H: Right, he doesn’t even have a bar!

[a few students gasp]

Mrs. H: Because he had no fruits and vegetables over the last 24 hours. We’re not making a judgment, we are just looking at information.

The bar graph is a great visual tool for us to compare what the recommended amounts are to what we actually do in our daily lives. This will help us as we are choosing a goal. When you look back at the three graphs you just did, does anything really jump out at you and you say, whoa! I’m really off here? I’m not even close to what the recommended amount is for something? Does anybody have one of those graphs?...

Wrapping up…

Mrs. H: From what you learned about your current eating from analyzing your 24 hour food intake and what you just wrote about why healthful eating is important, think about the goal that you want to choose. . . .

Marcus: It’s important to choose something that is practical--Mrs. H: --and realisticMarcus: --and realistic for your life.Mrs. H: Alright. You’re going to choose a goal right now. And as Marcus just said, the

goal needs to be practical and realistic.

Noticing & leveraging students’ cultural knowledge and experiences

Bar graph Trying on the norms and practices of science:• Representing data accurately

and quantitatively• Reasoning with data• Comparing and contrasting

with government recommendations

• Making reasonable and defensible recommendations for personal goals

Legitimizing student lives as valid sources of data and critique. • Analysis based on personal

experience• Contrasts with guidelines

viewed as generative• Expanded talk about

guidelines to include what is realistic and practical

A representation of scientific data &

cultural and familial practices, and place-

based constraints that mediates sense

making of scientifically-based

guidelines

• Noticing and leveraging students’ cultural knowledge & experience made possible in part through strategic use of mediating artifacts.

Looking across the teachers

Bar graphs: Grounding healthy eating goals in scientific evidence, personal data, and cultural practices

Science Youth worldsTangible symbols of a negotiation between the knowledge and

practice of school science & the learner

Mediating Artifacts: Implications

Community Outcomes Individual Outcomes

• Increased opportunities to develop awareness of and trying on of scientific norms, practices, identities

• Hybrid spaces created that– Merge vertical and horizontal learning– Link everyday/cultural knowledge and experience and

science

• Everyday discourses, values and priorities become visible and pertinent to the classroom community

– Tangible anchors of students’ personal connections throughout science inquiry.

– An unfolding of student's personal connections to the science content through this process

Implications: Community Outcomes

Bar graphs: Grounding healthy eating goals in scientific evidence, personal data, and cultural practices

Implications: Individual Outcomes

– Expanding identities– Expanding resources for learning– Expanding forms of participation & agency

Amelia as caretaker, Sweet Water girl, and worm poop expert.

Science Youth worldsTangible symbols of a negotiation between the knowledge and

practice of school science & the learner

Mediating Artifacts: Implications

Community Outcomes Individual Outcomes

Teacher or student initiated Expanded opportunities, resources & practices

Pedagogical Implications

• Engaging Mediating Artifacts is an iterative process and builds over time– Productive responses lead to new

opportunities to notice– Repertoire of legitimate practices and

identities allowable in CoP expanded– Value of struggling with scientific meaning

making elevated

Bone Song changed Mr. M’s teaching of the skeletal system, including focusing on more productive scientific ideas & encouraged a broader range of student participation

French Fry episode: student engagement with fries (and eating practices) fostered further data reduction and more complex claims about the food environment

I would also like to thank the students, teachers, and families whose stories are told here.

Questions & Discussion

THANK YOU!

• Public middle school, grades 6-8, 700 students• 38% African American, 6% Latino population, 2% Asian,

54% white• >70% of the students are on the school’s free lunch

program• Each class receives five periods of science each week, each

period lasting 55 minutes

• Partner teachers have been 2 and 15 years of teaching experience

• Using reform-based curricular materials (i.e., PBIS, LiFE) supplemented by personal teaching materials

• NASA Explorer School

Typical School: Carlson