NEW PD SESSION: Learning to See the Resources Students Bring to Sense-Making

Posted on February 28, 2019

Cultural communities, including scientific ones, have historically developed diverse ways of making sense of the natural world and stylized ways of communicating with each other as they develop and apply knowledge, including the use of different languages, gestures, ways to represent information, and perspectives on phenomena. In addition, every learner has the right to fully belong in their educational contexts. Instruction should welcome the diverse contributions they bring to sense-making. By asking groups to examine a set of specific learning situations, this resource can help support these goals by helping educators develop an asset-based stance towards the various contributions that students bring to making sense of phenomena. This asset-based approach to science instruction is guided by the underlying strategy of helping educators develop intellectual relationships with their students and between learners in an educational context—so they can function as a community of learners. 

This OER PD resource builds specifically upon the foundational research of Ann Rosebery, Beth Warren, and their collaborators over the years through the efforts of the Chèche Konnen center. The idea to develop this resource began with some shared dreaming of Philip Bell with Ann and Beth and others over a decade ago. In late 2017, Phil worked with Megan Bang, Deb Morrison, and Enrique Suárez to start developing what form the idea might take. As the resource started to come together, we greatly benefited from feedback from participants at the Michigan Science Teachers Association Annual Meeting in March 2018, the ACESSE 13 network of state science teams, and state teams associated with the entire Council of State Science Supervisors. We want to thank the researchers who analyzed the specific learning situations represented in the resource—and to the participants who played key roles in those studies. We would also like to thank the authors of the equity chapter in the NSTA book Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices—Megan Bang (a co-author of this resource), Bryan Brown, Angela Calabrese Barton, Ann Rosebery, and Beth Warren—who provided the specific theoretical framing used in the resource. That said, the authors are still fully responsible for the content of this resource. We hope that you find the resource to be useful in your efforts. 

ACESSE Resource G: Learning to See the Resources Students Bring to Sense-Making