Rethinking diversity in learning science: The logic of everyday sense‐making

TLDR

The article reviews the persistent achievement gap between low‑income, ethnic, and linguistic minority students and their privileged peers, and discusses how science education research has framed the relationship between everyday and scientific knowledge as either discontinuous or continuous. The authors present a perspective that situates their work within the continuous tradition, proposes a framework that views everyday sense‑making of diverse students as an intellectual resource, and discusses its implications for science learning research. Two case studies illustrate the framework by analyzing Haitian American and Latino students’ talk and activity as they work to understand metamorphosis and experimentation. The studies show that Haitian American and Latino students employ everyday sense‑making to grasp scientific concepts of metamorphosis and experimentation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 38: 529–552.

Abstract

Abstract There are many ways to understand the gap in science learning and achievement separating low‐income, ethnic minority and linguistic minority children from more economically privileged students. In this article we offer our perspective. First, we discuss in broad strokes how the relationship between everyday and scientific knowledge and ways of knowing has been conceptualized in the field of science education research. We consider two dominant perspectives on this question, one which views the relationship as fundamentally discontinuous and the other which views it as fundamentally continuous. We locate our own work within the latter tradition and propose a framework for understanding the everyday sense‐making practices of students from diverse communities as an intellectual resource in science learning and teaching. Two case studies follow in which we elaborate this point of view through analysis of Haitian American and Latino students' talk and activity as they work to understand metamorphosis and experimentation, respectively. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this new conceptualization for research on science learning and teaching. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 529–552, 2001