ERIC Number: EJ1053690
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Apr
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1046-560X
EISSN: N/A
A Blended Professional Development Program to Help a Teacher Learn to Provide One-to-One Scaffolding
Belland, Brian R.; Burdo, Ryan; Gu, Jiangyue
Journal of Science Teacher Education, v26 n3 p263-289 Apr 2015
Argumentation is central to instruction centered on socio-scientific issues (Sadler & Donnelly in "International Journal of Science Education," 28(12), 1463-1488, 2006. doi: 10.1080/09500690600708717). Teachers can play a big role in helping students engage in argumentation and solve authentic scientific problems. To do so, they need to learn one-to-one scaffolding--dynamic support to help students accomplish tasks that they could not complete unaided. This study explores a middle school science teacher's provision of one-to-one scaffolding during a problem-based learning unit, in which students argued about how to optimize the water quality of their local river. The blended professional development program incorporated three 1.5-h seminars, one 8-h workshop, and 4 weeks of online education activities. Data sources were video of three small groups per period, and what students typed in response to prompts from computer-based argumentation scaffolds. Results indicated that the teacher provided one-to-one scaffolding on a par with inquiry-oriented teachers described in the literature.
Descriptors: Scaffolding (Teaching Technique), Science Instruction, Middle School Teachers, Science Teachers, Problem Based Learning, Blended Learning, Faculty Development, Persuasive Discourse, Science and Society
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Middle Schools; Secondary Education; Junior High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A