The Temporality of Participation in School Science: Coordination of Teacher Control and the Pace of Students’ Participation

ABSTRACT

This study investigates classroom organisation and interaction focusing on phases of activity. The detailed in-depth case study is based on video recordings of 1 science unit consisting of 11 lessons about biological evolution in a Swedish ninth-grade class (aged 15). The study illuminates the temporality of student participation as a fundamental and practical concern for the science teaching profession. Through multiple scale analysis an activity pattern and students' contrasting positions are identified. Movements of control and agency between teacher and students in small-groups provide opportunities for the teacher to coordinate the teaching and the pace of students' participation. The implications point to challenges involved in providing all students with the learning opportunities that participation in the school science discourse affords.

KEYWORDS:

• student participation
• temporality
• IRF-pattern
• communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Swedish Research Council (dnr 349–2006–146) through the Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society.