ABS309 - Being and Becoming Scientists Today: Developing a learner-scientist perspective and CHAT framework for teaching and learning science

Becoming scientists typically evokes an image of a linear pipeline from novice or apprentice to expert or mentor punctuated by some type of postsecondary or graduate certification.  In contrast, these authors understand being and becoming as a single process by which individuals come to understand the world and themselves by contributing to our understanding of the world.  In this paper presentation, we take this latter, neo-Vygotskian notion and we use it to build a new conceptual framework for participation in and contribution to science and science education. 
  
Our work uses cultural-historical activity theory, published research studies, and a longitudinal empirical study to propose answers to questions that interest learners, but are not typically the questions asked in science throughout a student’s K-16 experience.  In order to forefront the perspectives of learner-scientists in science instruction we analyze each question historically, identify common myths and reconstruct them, and propose new tools for teaching toward four categories of learner-scientist questions.  All of our work has taken place in elementary school classrooms in a large urban school district in the United States.  We are both teacher educators at large universities (one public, one private) concerned with how new elementary school teachers will view science and design instruction for their future students.  We will discuss how our work is applicable more broadly across the school curriculum and beyond.