Coteaching, peer tutoring and curriculum writing: lasting effects of involving students in talking about science

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a 3-year case study that examines the lasting effects of having participated in cogenerative dialogues during a 9th grade science experience. Theo, a high school student researcher of more than three years, affords insights into the expansion of human agency, attributing it to his consistent participation in and the ripple effects of cogenerative dialogues. Three vignettes that underscore the value created by (a) coteaching with a high school science teacher, (b) being a peer tutor and (c) creating an inter-grade school wide curriculum project are examined as Theo moves through 10th and 11th grades. This study provides insights into how students who have traditionally participated in science peripherally can access structures that enable them to contribute to their own learning and the learning of others centrally and in substantive ways. Educators can learn and take away from this study feasible means by which students and teachers can work together to transform students’ science identities and teachers’ perceptions of what students can do with their newfound science agency.

Keywords:

• urban science
• cogenerative dialogues
• agency
• science identity
• ripple effects

Notes

1. Roth (2005) indicates a dialectical relationship by using the Sheffer stroke (“|”).

2. Pseudonym.

3. Pseudonym.

4. Lab rubric items were established criteria meant to focus students’ learning on specific requirements that were needed to be met to demonstrate competence in various aspects of the laboratory experience.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gillian U. Bayne

Gillian U. Bayne is an assistant professor of science education and a program coordinator in the Middle and High School Education Department at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Lehman College. Grounding her work primarily in cultural sociology, the sociology of emotions and face-to-face interactions, Gillian’s research interests involve improving teaching and learning in science education at the secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels. She has a keen interest in examining the experiences and trajectories of Black and Latino secondary science students as well as helping others to learn from the personal and professional experiences had by underrepresented scientists of colour.