Conversational and enactment patterns for different science inquiry tasks: Implications for educative curriculum guides

Detailed descriptions of inquiry curricula enactment can support reform efforts by representing inquiry in actual classroom practice. This study describes the conversation and task enactment practices of two urban middle school teachers using the inquiry activities from a project-based science curricula. A microanalysis of interaction methodology was used to identify patterns in task use and conversational practice for each teacher.;Findings from this study identified characteristic patterns of inquiry task enactment and teacher conversational practices. Despite detailed teacher guides and similar professional development, the two teachers differed in their use of time, their sequencing of tasks, and their decisions to use, adapt, or add tasks to the curriculum. Characteristic differences were observed between teachers for task instructional attributes with regard to task explicitness, the enforcement of student accountability in learning from those tasks and the utility of the assessment tasks added to the curriculum. Similarities in statement content, style of interaction and questioning practices were observed for inquiry tasks related to asking questions, planning procedures, drawing conclusions, and interpreting results. By contrast, differences were observed between teachers with regard to how they used teacher press and teacher modeling as well as the level and style of questions asked of the students. A cross findings analysis indicates that each teacher held a different orientation to classroom learning and that the observed patterns represent differently held roles by each teacher.;These findings have implications for the design of educative curriculum guides for use with inquiry materials. They provide example "maps of enactment" for various stages of a guided inquiry activity. The conversational analysis identifies different types of teacher knowledge that get used in conversations about inquiry tasks. Overall, the study provides examples of how different teacher roles frame the use of inquiry tasks and the teacher conversational practices for these tasks. The author suggests that educative curriculum guides should include information on how teacher roles can support or derail the intended reform practices. These guides would help teachers understand how their own beliefs influence their enactment of curricula and support the development of a classroom orientation that values learning through inquiry.