Making meaning: Shifts in meaningfulness across three modeling units

Recent reform calls for a more comprehensive approach to science education that positions learners as constructors of knowledge via scientific practices (NRC, 2012; Osborne, 2014). This 'practice turn' shifts from passive science learning to incorporating science actions with epistemic thinking (Duschl & Grandy, 2013; Ford & Forman, 2006; Osborne, 2014; Shouse, Schweingruber, & Duschl, 2007). Teachers are often underprepared in understanding the nuances of scientific practices, and frequently struggle with supporting students in meaningful practice engagement (Abd-El-Khalick & Akerson, 2004; Crawford, 1999; Davis, Petish, & Smithey, 2006; Duschl & Gitomer, 1997). Here, I draw upon the Berland et al. Epistemologies in Practice framework to define meaningfulness as being both authentic to the discipline of science and relevant to students: not only are students attending to epistemic thinking as they engage in a practice, but they are also buying into the need to do things that way (2016). In this dissertation, I examine a classroom community (Mrs. L and her students) across three eighth grade modeling units to answer the research question How does a teacher support students in a modeling curriculum? Specifically, I want to know how Mrs. L and the students co-construct meaning around a practice in the classroom and then how students apply that meaning to their final models. Based on the data collected in each of the units, I argue that meaningfulness co-constructed around a practice in a classroom setting can take a variety of forms that maintain authenticity to the discipline of science and relevance to students. Furthermore, I argue that this meaningfulness can be abandoned as students construct their final models when the activity is approached as a product rather than as a scientific practice. Together, the findings from this multiple case study inform a larger body of research examining more effective supports for meaningful modeling and more productive approaches to modeling in the classroom and beyond.