University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 8-1-2011 Power dynamics and questioning in elementary science lessons Lori Ann Reinsvold Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Reinsvold, Lori Ann, "Power dynamics and questioning in elementary science lessons" (2011). Dissertations. 231. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/231 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2011 LORI ANN REINSVOLD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 189 UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School POWER DYNAMICS AND QUESTIONING IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE LESSONS A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lori Ann Reinsvold College of Education and Behavioral Sciences School of Psychological Sciences Educational Psychology August, 2011 189 This Dissertation by: Lori Ann Reinsvold Entitled: Power Dynamics and Questioning in Elementary Science Lessons has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in College of Education and Behavioral Sciences in School of Psychological Sciences, Program of Educational Psychology. Accepted by the Doctoral Committee _______________________________________________________ Kathryn Cochran, Ph.D., Chair _______________________________________________________ Teresa McDevitt, Ph.D., Committee Member _______________________________________________________ Kevin Pugh, Ph.D., Committee Member _______________________________________________________ Henry Heikkinen, Ph.D., Committee Member _______________________________________________________ Elizabeth Franklin, Ph.D., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense June 9, 2011 Accepted by the Graduate School _________________________________________________________ Robbyn R. Wacker, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President for Research Dean of the Graduate School & International Admissions 189 iv ABSTRACT Reinsvold, Lori Ann. Power dynamics and questioning in elementary science lessons. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2011. Discourse interactions between a teacher and students in an inquiry-based fourth- grade science classroom were analyzed to investigate how power dynamics and questioning strategies within elementary science lessons help support students in building their science understanding. Five inquiry-based classroom sessions were observed; verbal interactions were audio- and video-recorded. Research data consisted of observation transcripts, teacher interviews, student work, and instructional materials. Analyses were conducted on the frequencies of utterances, participation roles, power categories, and questioning categories. Results revealed that when students used more frequent power, (a) no significant differences were noted between frequencies of teacher and student talk, (b) the teacher posed more questions than did the students, and (c) students explained what they knew and asked questions to clarify their understanding. When the teacher used more frequent power, she asked questions to provide students opportunities to negotiate investigative processes and explain what they knew and how they knew it. Evidence of student understanding of the science concepts was found in how students used subject matter to discuss what they knew and how they knew it. Pre- service and in-service teachers should be encouraged to consider how their use of power and questioning strategies can engage students to reflect on how they build understanding of science concepts. Teachers can use Professional Learning Communities to reflect on 189 v how their practice engages students. Future research should be employed to observe classrooms across an entire school year to determine how power and questioning dynamics flow among students and teachers and change over time. Research can also be used to understand the influence of gender and culture on power and questioning dynamics in classroom settings. 189 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Kathy Cochran for her time and guidance during my journey. She provided me with a fellowship through the NSF funded Center for Learning and Teaching in the West (CLTW) project. The fellowship allowed me to attend informative regional and national science and mathematics education conferences, and provided funding for graduate course work. Also, Kathy joined my journey and became just as enthusiastic as I during the research aspect of my Ph.D.. I really enjoyed and appreciated the collaborations. We have other research questions to investigate so we can continue to build our understanding of power and questioning dynamics in classroom settings. My committee, Teresa McDevitt, Kevin Pugh, Henry Heikkinen, and Elizabeth Franklin provided perspectives that allowed me to refine my research. Their guidance provided suggestion on how to improve my study and descriptions of my findings. I greatly appreciate their time and attention so that I could meet my goals. I greatly appreciate the teacher and the students of this study. I was inspired by how the teacher engaged her students to learn science. The students seemed to love learning science. I am thankful for the teacher’s willingness to allow me to come into her world and talk about learning science. I could not have completed my research without the financial support from the MAST Institute and the University of Northern Colorado. Because of the funds, I was able to receive assistance with transcriptions, and completion of my course work. 189 vii My family (Rob, Maggie, Eric & Nicole) has been a tremendous support. They remained confident that I would complete my graduate studies. They assisted me by being a sounding board for my research ideas, and reviewing my transcriptions and writings. I could not have accomplished this work without them. 189 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………... 1 Theoretical Framework Scope of Study Purpose Research Questions Definition of Terms Limitations II. LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………….….. 12 Discourse Questioning Strategies Power Dynamics III. METHODOLOGY………………………………………………..……… 59 Design Participants and Setting Method Data Analysis Validity and Reliability IV. CONTEXT OF INTERACTIONS……………………………………..… 83 Teacher Background and Teaching Perspectives Fourth-grade Students Observations for the Study V. RESULTS……………………………………………...………………… 98 Preliminary Coding Analyses Power and Questioning Dynamics Summary VI. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSION……………….….…………………. 146 Defining Power Dynamics Implications of Power and Questioning Dynamics on Practice Future Research Limitations of the Study 189 ix REFERENCES………………………………………………………….…………… 155 APPENDIX A, Teacher Interviews, Dates, and Times…………………..………….. 169 APPENDIX B, Question Prompts for Classroom Observations…………………….. 172 APPENDIX C, Question Prompts for Interviews and Observations Developed from Classroom Observations……...………………………………………………..……… 174 APPENDIX D, Classroom Observations and Lesson Topics……………………….. 176 APPENDIX E, IRB Consent and Assent Letters, and Approval…………....……….. 178 APPENDIX F, Comparison of Student and Teacher Utterances Across the Six Participation Roles………….…………….…………………………………………... 184 APPENDIX G, Distribution of Power Categories Across Observations...…...…….... 186 APPENDIX H, Comparison of Student Academic Scores and Performance in Science………………………………………………………………………………... 188 APPENDIX I, Example of an Activity Sheet Used for the Lessons of this Study…... 190 APPENDIX J, Example of Student Work: Science Notebook Entry about Facts of a Bobcat and Coyote…………………………………………………………………… 192 189 x LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Selection Criteria and Description of the Teacher and Students………....……... 62 2 Categories of Data Sought from Structured Teacher Interview………………..… 65 3 Transcription Conventions – adapted from Adger (2003)…………..………......... 71 4 Definitions and Examples of Participation Roles……………………………........ 74 5 Examples of the Final Transcription Matrix…………………...……………......... 75 6 Definitions, Abbreviations, and Examples of Power Categories……………......... 77 7 Definitions and Examples of Question Categories and Types………………….… 79 8 Distribution of Student Ethnicity and Free and Reduced Lunch Frequencies……. 83 9 Student Information…………………………………………………………..…... 91 10 Characteristics of the Observations……..………...………………….………….... 94 11 Comparison of Student and Teacher Utterances…………………………..……… 100 12 Distribution of Teacher and Student Participation Roles……………………......... 102 13 Distribution of Total Power Categories Across Teacher, Students, and Observations………………………………………………………………..…....... 104 14 Power Categories for Students and Teacher………………………………..…….. 106 15 Distribution of Student and Teacher Questions Across Questioning Categories………………………………………………………………………..... 107 189 xi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 Diagram of the 4th Grade Classroom………….………………………………. 63 189 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION To improve science teaching and learning, researchers are evaluating how science classroom interactions, specifically social relationships and discourse among teachers and students, provide opportunities to develop science reasoning and