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Types of Investigations

First-hand Investigations:

Learners conduct actual investigations of the physical world.

e.g., measuring sound waves and comparing the waves for different pitches comparing the brightness of light from bulbs connected in various circuits.

Second-hand Investigations:
Learners inquire about others' investigations and conclusions regarding the physical world in order to:

• inform their thinking about what/how to investigate
• strengthen their understanding of knowledge built from investigation
• look for evidence to confirm or refute their own ideas
• seek new ideas to advance their thinking about the physical world

Notebook Texts

New Genre of Text

• invites students to engage in scientific inquiry with the text
• maximizes opportunity for children to read the text critically

The idea of notebook texts arose in the course of research regarding inquiry-based instruction. Knowing that seeking information from text-based resources is a common practice of scientists, we sought to determine how to have students interact with text-based materials in ways that did not undermine their knowledge building from first-hand investigation; that is, direct investigation of the physical world. Dr. Magnusson originated the idea of second-hand investigations, which refer to the type of information scientists typically seek via text: information about what others have done and found out via first-hand investigation of the physical world. The idea of developing notebook texts - described below - came in response to results from research examining students' interactions with more traditional forms of text commonly found in elementary school classrooms. We were dissatisfied with the narrow range of learning possibilities that they presented, even in the hands of a teacher with exemplary literacy practices, whose students were used to critically reading texts.

Benefits of New Genre

• models a scientist's notebook, therefore it provides information about methods of investigation and analysis as well as outcomes of investigations
• provides a shared investigative experience
• addresses concepts targeted for elementary school students
• readability suitable to elementary school students

Notebook texts are called such because they are modeled after the type of notebooks that actual scientists keep in recording their investigative activity and findings. They represent an innovative genre of text that is designed not only to support student development of scientific knowledge, but also scientific reasoning. Existing notebook texts are intended for use in inquiry-based science instruction at the elementary school level, which means that they are designed to promote the interplay between first-hand and second-hand investigations. Their conceptual focus, and their placement in a unit of study, are determined by a variety of factors, with the intention that each notebook text will: (a) enable consolidation or further development of understanding of scientific concepts or reasoning in previous first-hand investigations or (b) provide ideas to apply in the course of subsequent first-hand investigation.

Notebook texts present students with views into the planning and conduct of scientific investigation as well as the process of determining outcomes from those investigations. These features provide the opportunity for the text to reflect important norms of scientific activity such as: a) the use of systematic investigation to understand causes of physical phenomena; b) the goal of making knowledge claims about the physical world from those investigations, c) the need to publicly present one's findings to other scientists whose acceptance is necessary in order for the knowledge claims to be considered new scientific knowledge, d) the role of scientists' perceptions of the precision of data collection in their acceptance of others' claims, and e) the need to rule out competing hypotheses in developing explanations for the cause of relationships. In this way, notebook texts are a source, besides the teacher, for presenting and modeling norms and conventions of scientific investigation and knowledge-building.

What we DON'T want text to do

• usurp children's authority for knowing
• provide simplistic answers to complex questions/phenomena
• presume to transmit knowledge
• contain mainly low inference statements

What we DO want text to do

• provide useful information
• provide a sufficient amount of information to foster comprehension
• contain mostly moderate to high inference statements
• support the construction of new knowledge and ways of reasoning

Another important role of the notebook text is to provide a shared inquiry experience. When students inquire in a first-hand way with the same materials, they do not use those materials in exactly the same way, and do not make exactly the same observations with the materials, which can result in quite disparate data. Or students may analyze their data differently or make different selections about what data to analyze, and produce quite different knowledge claims. In contrast, in a notebook text, all students see the same data, read about and see the same analyses, and read the same knowledge claims. Thus, a notebook text provides an opportunity for a shared experience of these aspects of doing science in a way that a first-hand investigation cannot.

At the same time, notebook texts are intentionally high inference; that is, they do not make explicit all of the thinking and decision-making behind what is written, or represented in drawings. This is necessary so that it resembles a scientist's notebook, which does not spell out every step in the thinking process, but it also functions to provide genuine reasons to discuss the text. The high-inference nature of a notebook text has the additional benefit of supporting the development of student comprehension monitoring abilities in ways that low inference texts do not.

Often, notebook texts are designed to have similarities with students' own first-hand investigations so that students can use those experiences and the knowledge gained from them to understand the text and critically examine what it says. Texts with such a focus provide students with additional opportunities to consolidate, revise, or deepen their understanding of their own first-hand investigation. Notebook texts typically begin with a real world situation or phenomenon that piques the curiosity of the fictitious scientist, Lesley, whose notebooks are the texts. The real-world context acts as a touchstone relative to subsequent investigation. That is, Lesley initiates investigation in order to understand the phenomena she observed, but because any real world situation involves several variables, notebook texts typically report on a series of investigations, each of which helps to build understanding of the real world situation. In the course of her investigations, Lesley must sort out the effects of particular variables in isolation, and then reason about their impact in combination, in order to make sense of the initial phenomenon. However, as is common in the experience of actual scientific activity, questions always lead to more questions, and notebook texts typically end with Lesley commenting upon new directions of inquiry that her experiences have pointed to, but which must be left, "for another day."

Finally, a unique feature of the notebook texts is that the scientist's conceptual understanding evolves across the text. This means that ideas expressed at the outset of the text may change or be discarded later in the text. In some cases, Lesley draws one conclusion in an early investigation, and comes to the opposite conclusion from an investigation later in the text. This type of outcome happens when Lesley initially investigates in less precise ways, and learns, upon sharing with colleagues, more precise ways of investigating (e.g., measuring variables). This approach allows the notebook text to provide a view of scientific knowledge production in action, as the scientist refines her thinking and actions, and responds to the role that the scientific community plays in the production of scientific knowledge.

Features of Notebook Text
Substantive Characteristics

• Written as a think-aloud so there is a definite "voice" - a scientist's thoughts written in the first person
• Information about knowledge building in the scientific community; for example,
  
  • Questions guide inquiry
    
  • Investigations are designed and conducted to maximize determining relationships
    
  • Claims emerge from analysis and interpretation of data
    
  • Other community members evaluate investigations and claims
    
• Revision of thinking and action on the part of the scientist in response to new information.
  
• Models text use in the course of an investigation

Graphic Characteristics

• Drawings of investigative set-up
  
  • placement of materials
• Multiple representations of data
  
  • figures (showing observations)
  • tables and graphs

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Teaching with Notebook Texts

As with any instruction, supporting learning from notebook texts involves making decisions about teacher actions when considering multiple dimensions of goals. At the very least, notebook texts provide learning opportunities with respect to the following dimensions:

• literacy - comprehension of informational text, including features such as figures, tables, graphs
• scientific knowledge - the products of science such as complete circuit, electric current
• scientific reasoning - the norms and conventions of the scientific community such as systematic observation, observation of phenomena under experimental conditions where all variables are controlled but one, the presentation of evidence to back knowledge claims, the expectation that the procedures producing the cited evidence are repeatable by others
  

It is not possible to support learning relative to all dimensions at once; hence, teaching actions switch among the dimensions, which makes for very complex thinking. Moreover, the decision about which dimensions to support at particular times (considering that what's in the text is known by the teacher and the teacher can plan which dimensions to address at particular points in the text) needs to be responsive to the students' sense-making of the text and flexibly switch dimensions as needed to support student comprehension and learning from the text.

Examples of Teacher Practices to Support Literacy Development

• Make explicit, strategies needed to interpret scientific text
  e.g., reading tables (attend to table title, row/column headings, units for measurements)
  
• Support building vocabulary by addressing unfamiliar language in the text
  e.g., structure, extreme, colleague

Examples of Teacher Practices to Support Scientific Knowledge Development

• Check students understanding of "new" information
  e.g., knowledge of battery brands; meaning of voltage
  
• Promote linking of prior knowledge/experience to new information
  e.g., batteries in series compared to light bulbs in series
  
• Make explicit the difference between information about materials or phenomena vs. concepts invented to describe or explain phenomena (relationships identified vs. explanations invented)
  e.g., battery type, vs. battery voltage (invented concept); relationship of voltage to brightness (invented concept - observable phenomenon) vs. proposed explanation that a reversed battery cancels the energy of another battery in series (invented explanation)

Examples of Teacher Practices to Support Scientific Reasoning Development

• Make explicit that the purpose of investigation is to answer a question
  e.g., post question being pursued for each investigation (notebook texts generally have several)
  
• Make explicit that the methods for investigation are chosen because they are thought to be appropriate to the question.
  e.g., ask students to discuss the merits of the procedures Lesley has chosen to investigate
  
• Make explicit the norms/conventions for investigation
  e.g., have students identify the characteristics of Lesley's investigative procedures
  (i.e., systematic, measurement employed, small increments, extreme cases)
  
• Make explicit the norms/conventions for making claims
  e.g., have students discuss how Lesley might have arrived at her claim(s)
  e.g., have students make claims from Lesley's data, and provide feedback about the generality of the statements (scientists make the most general claims they can from their data)
  
• Make explicit the norms/conventions for evaluating knowledge claims
  e.g., have students judge whether they think there is sufficient evidence to support Lesley's claim(s); i.e., ask, how convinced are they by the data and why are they convinced or not by it?
  e.g., have students identify characteristics of the type of reaction Lesley gets from colleagues reacting to her claim(s)

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