From here to equity: The influence of status on student access to and understanding of science

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to extend our understanding of groupwork in the science classroom—to use the sociological construct of status (defined here as a student's perceived academic ability and popularity) to explain inequitable participation by group members and to identify strategies that promote reasoned consideration of all ideas within groups. Toward these ends, I investigated three classes of one sixth-grade science teacher at an urban, ethnically diverse middle school. Students in these life science classes used an instructional strategy and curriculum designed explicitly to address differences in their access to and understanding of science: the Complex Instruction model of groupwork and the Human Biology Middle Grades Life Science Curriculum. Over the course of two units, I examined the powerful influence of status on student–student interactions during groupwork and student performance on science tests. I used quantitative observation instruments and semistructured student interviews to ascertain the quality of groupwork implementation, audio- and videotapes of target groups to study the relationship between status and participation, and a Rate of Talk Instrument and unit tests to determine if students' participation during groupwork influenced their achievement in science. Because status issues were not fully addressed by teacher and curriculum, inequities in both groupwork participation and science learning persisted. Three recommendations for groupwork refinement are offered: the consistent implementation of interventions designed to ameliorate status differences; the strategic assignment of procedural roles to ensure student access to group materials, discourse, and decisions; and the overturning of students' conventional notions of intelligence—what they think it means to be smart. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 83:577–601, 1999.