Meaning making in high school science classrooms: A framework for analysing meaning making interactions

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce and exemplify aspects of a tool for analysing the various forms and functions of discursive interactions in high school science classrooms. This tool, or analytical framework, is based on a sociocultural view of teaching and learning, and consists of five linked aspects: Teaching purposes; Content of the classroom interactions; Communicative approach; Patterns of discourse; Teacher interventions. Here we focus attention on introducing and exemplifying how different teaching purposes can be addressed through combinations of communicative approach and patterns of discourse, as the scientific 'story' develops. In this way we demonstrate how the different aspects of the framework interrelate, providing a coherent basis for analysing classroom interactions. Finally we turn to the ways in which the framework has been used in planning science teaching and discuss how the framework is being used with science teachers in the context of professional development programmes, in both the UK and Brazil. © 2005 Springer.