An Investigation of Problem Framing and Solving in a Grade 8 Open-Inquiry Science Program

This study of learning in a Grade 8 open-inquiry science classroom focuses on the situated nature of students' problem framing and solving as they engaged in field research and the solving of contextual word problems, which we constructed from the students' own inquiries. The data sources included videotaped lessons, audiotaped interviews, and teacher-student interactions, and the artifacts constructed by students and teacher-researchers in the course of the study. Our analyses document and discuss the enormous work done by students in constructing research problems and resolving these problems through engaging in field research. During field research, many local problems emerged, which students learned to resolve interactionally with their peers and the settings. The students' framing of problems for research and work in the field setting stood in sharp contrast to their work on teacher-constructed, contextual word problems. These differences led us to a critical analysis of traditional word problems. The students' achievements in each of these situations emerged out of their interactions within a classroom community that encouraged independence, collaboration, and negotiation of meaning, and with the physical setting. Students' achievements and learning were meaningful because they were indexed to, and situated in, the setting of the students' experience.