Teacher facilitating of group learning in science with digital technology and insights into students’ agency in learning to learn

Figures & data

Figure 1. A model of task sequencing to promote learning.

From Edwards, A. (2015). “Designing Tasks Which Engage Learners with Knowledge.” In Designing Tasks in Secondary Education: Enhancing Subject Understanding and Student Engagement, edited by I. Thompson, 13–27. New York, NY: Routledge.

Table 1. Teaching sequence over four weeks.

Date	Duration, min	Topic	Activities	Learning resources	Technology used
26.02	120	Structure of Cells	Recap of previous knowledge Educational documentary Group work: structures of cells and their functions	Newton Documentary Task sheet Textbook Viten.no	Interactive whiteboard PC IPAD
03.03	60	Environmental and genetic variation	Teacher introduction Group work: types of variation	Power Point Task sheet Viten.no	Interactive whiteboard
06.03	120	Genes and chromosomes	Teacher introduction on genes, chromosomes, genotype and phenotype Group tasks on the structure of chromosomes and Punnet Square	Power Point Viten.no Textbook Copied articles from other resources	Interactive whiteboard PC IPAD
10.03	60	Genetic diseases	Teacher introduction on genetic diseases Group task on genetic variation and genetic diseases	Power Point Viten.no Internet resources Textbooks	Interactive whiteboard PC IPAD
12.03	120	Cell division	Teacher introduction on mitosis and meiosis Group task on mitosis and meiosis	Power Point Viten.no Task sheet Textbooks	Interactive whiteboard PC IPAD
17.03	60	Revision	Revision of mitosis and meiosis and Punnet Square Group task on dominant and recessive genes	Power Point Viten.no Task sheet	Interactive whiteboard PC IPAD
20.03	120	Genetic engineering and summary of the project	Whole class teaching and group activities	Power Point Viten.no Copied pages from other textbooks	Interactive whiteboard IPAD

Figure 2. The interface of Viten.no/cells/mitosis.

Table 2. Time of the video recordings of the target groups and the teacher.

Group/Teacher	Time, min
Group 1	174
Group 2	180
Group 3	174
Group 4	84
Group 5	84
Teacher (whole class teaching and group interventions)	678
Total	1374

Table 3. Number of teacher interventions in the five observed groups.

Galperin’s pedagogical phases	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Mean (M)
Orientation	4	2	4	2	3	M = 3.00 SD = 1.00
Communicated thinking	2	2	3	2	2	M = 2.20 SD = 0.45
Dialogical thinking	1	1	1	1	1	M = 1.00 SD = 0.00
One-way ANOVA test	p = 0.001

Table

1.	Rita:	We do not understand the diagrams. What is this? ((pointing at the mitosis diagram in the task sheet))
2.	Teacher:	What do you think it can be?
3.	Rita:	I have no idea. It looks like-
4.	Teacher:	Look at what we began with in the class, you should have written it in your exercise book.
5.	Rita:	Here ((pointing at the diagram in her exercise book)) are copied DNA strands which are getting together into a chromosome, right?
6.	Teacher:	Where does this copying happen in this diagram ((pointing at the diagram in the task sheet))?
7.	Elisabeth:	Here ((pointing at the cells in the diagram in the task sheet))
8.	Teacher:	That is right. This is the simplified version of the process.
9.	Elisabeth:	So, they divide here and become like these ((pointing at the chromosomes in the diagram of meiosis in the task sheet))?
10.	Teacher:	Yes, we define them as single chromosomes.
11.	Rita:	Do the DNA strands have to come together to form a single chromosome? And do they copy to form a homo- Is it homogen-?
12.	Teacher:	Yes, the chromosomes are homologue.
13.	Rita:	These are homologue ((pointing at the chromosomes in the diagram of meiosis in the task sheet)).
14.	Teacher:	Yes, the genes in these chromosomes carry information about the same feature, but they can be different.
15.	Elisabeth:	They have blue and red stripes ((pointing at the chromosomes in the diagram of meiosis in the task sheet)).
16.	Teacher:	Yes, Viten explains the process in a different way with the different number of stages. The process can be presented in various ways, check out Viten if it helps you to understand.
17.	Rita:	OK.

Table

1.	Henrik:	They are beginning to exchange genes here ((pointing at the chromosomes in Viten animation)). Now they are going to divide.
2.	Andreas:	This one and this one, they are similar ((pointing at the chromosomes in different cells in Viten animation)).
3.	Teacher:	Do you understand what happens here?
4.	Rita:	They have jumped over two stages.
5.	Henrik:	Now they are going to divide, it’s quite simple.
6.	Teacher:	Yes, you can see the similarity ((refers to the chromosomes in different cells in Viten animation)).
7.	Andreas:	Now they are dividing. They are similar, right ((pointing at the chromosomes in Viten animation))? Two single chromosomes in each cell.
8.	Teacher:	Can you click here ((pointing at the first stage of Viten animation))? They start with four chromosomes. But in reality how many chromosomes are there in a cell?
9.	Andreas:	Twenty four, no, twenty-three.
10.	Teacher:	Pairs? Which means forty-six single chromosomes.
11.	Andreas:	It’s just simplified here ((refers to Viten animation)).
12.	Teacher:	Exactly, the animation shows a simplified process.
13.	Henrik:	Otherwise, it would have been too many chromosomes.
14.	Teacher:	And it would have been difficult to understand ((leaving the group)).

Table

1.	Teacher:	Are you in the middle of describing the differences?
2.	Helene:	Yes, this is a difficult phenomenon.
3.	Teacher:	Yes, and if you compare these two processes – what happens with the chromosomes?
4.	Helene:	Well, I think the main point is that they divide one extra time in meiosis.
5.	Teacher:	Yes.
6.	Chris:	This makes DNA to copy the same number of times as in mitosis, but the cell divides four times. There will be 46 chromosomes in two cells as they divide an extra time. So, each chromosome doubles copies itself once but divides twice, therefore there will be 23 chromosomes in each cell.
7.	Teacher:	Yes, it looks quite easy, what happens here ((points at the diagram of mitosis in the task sheet))? How many chromosomes are there?
8.	Helene:	Twenty-two? Twenty-six? No, twenty-three?
9.	Teacher:	Twenty three (.) pairs?
10.	Helene:	Yes.
12.	Teacher:	Are these daughter cells similar to those ((points at the mother cells in the task sheet))? Are there twenty-three pairs too ((points at the daughter cells in meiosis))?
13.	Helene:	Here, we’ve got twenty-three pairs, right ((points at the mother cell in meiosis)). And here we’ve got twenty-three pairs divided by two, haven’t we ((points at the daughter cells in meiosis))?
14.	Teacher:	Here are forty-six single chromosomes.
15.	Mira:	And there will be twenty-three single chromosomes.
16.	Helene:	Twenty-three in each of them, right ((points at the daughter cells in meiosis in the task sheet))?
17.	Teacher:	Half of the number that was at the beginning.
18.	Mira:	Because they divide an extra time.
19.	Teacher:	So, this is the difference. And this is an important difference. The number of the chromosomes reduces by half. Here the daughter cells are identical to their mother cell ((points at the diagram of mitosis)), but what about those cells comparing to this one ((points at the daughter cells and the mother cell in meiosis))? […]
20.	Mira:	Do they have different chromosomes?
21.	Teacher:	This too. The chromosomes are also different. This is an important difference between these two processes of cell division. Look at these two processes, what about the number of cells produced?

Table 4. Patterns of teacher facilitating of students’ learning.

Galperin’s pedagogical phases	Teacher actions
Orientation	Setting up the learning process; Revealing the potential of the available mediational resources for the needs of the learners (diagrams in the compare and contrast task);
Communicated thinking	By interacting with digital animations, shaping students’ conceptual understanding of mitosis and meiosis
Dialogical thinking	Structuring and organising students’ knowledge by helping learners to identify the essential features of the concepts of mitosis and meiosis

Figure 3. A structure created by the dialectical interplay between the compare and contrast task, digital tools, collaborating peers and teacher interventions in the learning process. The mediational resources are not marked on the diagram because of their interchangeable position.