Teacher practices of verbal support during a design project in the chemistry classroom

Teacher practices of verbal support during a design project in the chemistry classroom

Sheoratan, Sathyam (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
Henze, Ineke (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
de Vries, M.J. (TU Delft Science Education and Communication)
Barendsen, Erik (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen; Open University of the Netherlands)

2023

Design activities are gaining interest as rich contexts for learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. STEM teachers may find this challenging however, as designing requires support that they are not used to providing. In a subject like chemistry, teachers would have to balance creativity and responsibility for the students with concept learning and safety in the classroom. In a case study, we analyzed the verbal interactions of three teachers with their students during design activities in the classroom, with the aim of understanding what teachers and students talk about and how chemistry teachers support the students with their designs. During the lesson, students worked on the design of a self-heating or self-cooling cup, while also performing chemistry experiments to learn about the energy effects of reactions. Such a lesson reflects what design activities in the chemistry classroom could look like. We described the topics that teachers and students talk about, revealing that teachers support students through several types of feedback and questions. We also found that teachers support design tasks in a more open, constructive, and encouraging way than is used for experiments and chemistry concepts, which are supported in a closed, clarifying, and steering manner.

Chemistry education
Design
Design-based learning
Teacher–student interaction

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:51b74eac-58d2-4bf6-a7d6-2a4cb5b7f627

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-023-09818-w

2023-10-01

0957-7572

International Journal of Technology and Design Education

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 Sathyam Sheoratan, Ineke Henze, M.J. de Vries, Erik Barendsen