Sm. Ritchie et K. Tobin, Actions and discourses for transformative understanding in a middle schoolscience class, INT J SCI E, 23(3), 2001, pp. 283-299
So that we might understand better how the discursive practices of classroo
m participants lead to students' transformative understanding, we immersed
ourselves in a Grade 8 science class for an extended period of observation.
Our observation and interview data were interpreted from two overlapping p
erspectives, namely, an action orientation and a discourse orientation. We
found that the teacher's actions encouraged univocal discourse between stud
ents and their reproductive understanding of scientific concepts. We argue
that before a class can become more like a scientific discourse community,
teachers need to promote dialogic discourse and transformative understandin
g. The contextual descriptions and interpretations presented might help tea
chers form images of classroom practices that will be conducive to students
' transformative understandings of science.