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2004 NSF K-12 Math, Science, and Technology Curriculum Developers Conference

Enhancing Scientific Literacy Through Multiple Text Genres

Elizabeth Birr Moje
Joseph Krajcik

Science project-based curricula generally include the use of multiple tools for inquiry (Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks, 1998), but little is known about how teachers and students employ print-based tools in the service of classroom science inquiry projects. In particular, what are the effects on student learning of textual tools designed with different forms of texts, including expository, narrative, and real-world texts? How can teachers and students use such textual tools most effectively in project-based science learning? In this project, we address questions regarding the development of general and scientific literacy skills by testing print-based tools specifically designed to support students’ interactions with science-related textual materials or tools as they engage in inquiry. We hypothesize that careful sequencing of certain types of text forms or genres, including expository, narrative, and naturally occurring texts, can support students’ learning of science concepts and discourse. We will determine the features of textual tools that best support middle-school students’ science and scientific literacy learning, thus providing a model for the development of textual tools for different types of curricula.

• What effect do various combinations of text forms have on content and literacy learning?
  • Does the combination of constructed expository text with naturally occurring text have a greater effect on student learning than the use of constructed expository text alone?
  • Does the combination of constructed expository text with constructed narrative text have a greater effect on student learning than the use of constructed expository text alone?
  • Does the combination of constructed expository text with both naturally occurring and constructed narrative text have a greater effect on student learning than the use of constructed expository text alone?
• What is the role of curriculum readers in the classrooms under study?
  • How do teachers use the readers and other print texts?
  • How do students engage with the readers?
• How do teachers employ scientific literacy teaching strategies taught in professional development? What effect do these strategies have on students’ content and literacy learning?

Primary data sources for the project include (a) pre- and post-test scores on assessments designed specifically to address content knowledge (b) pre- and post-test scores on assessments designed specifically to address reading skills reflected in the curriculum; (c) standardized measures of students’ reading and writing ability levels; (d) student content and process interviews; formal, unstructured interviews with students and teachers; informal reading and writing inventories; naturalistic and predetermined observations of the uses of literacy and various types of text; (e) naturally occurring artifacts of student work; (f) artifacts designed to serve as reader activities and as assessment measures. Contextual data sources include pre- and post-test score data, observational data, and content and process interview data collected across all classrooms in the larger research initiative. This study will provide science and literacy researchers with the opportunity to develop the capacity to design innovative science reading materials, literacy professional development activities for teachers, and classroom enactments of literacy strategies that advance scientific literacy and science concept learning.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. ESI-0352345). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.