Assessing characteristics of teacher and student actions during instructional talks in primary science classrooms by means of video-analysis

This dissertation is situated in the field of primary science teaching and is embedded in two research projects at the Institute for Learning and Teaching Primary Science at the University of Münster (Germany), which assess teacher cognitions and teacher actions in the light of different pre-service and in-service teacher education courses. A research tool for analysing video-data of science instruction was developed in order to assess teachers’ and students’ actions during topic-related instructional talks. This research tool shall record both organisational structures of the lessons and the teachers’ and students’ actions. For coding these, the following theoretical constructs were operationalised on the level of observable actions: (1) social constructivist-oriented teaching which aims at promoting conceptual development ( Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl 1998 ; Hewson, Beeth & Thorley 1998 ; Mortimer & Machado 2000 ; Driver, Newton & Osborne 2000 ), transmissive teaching, ( Mehan 1979 ; Lemke 1990 , Smerdon, Burkam & Lee 1999 ), hands-on teaching ( Gustafson & Rowell 1995 ; Barnes & Foley 2004 ; Mayer 2004), and cognitive activity (Klieme & Reusser 2003, Klieme et al. 2001 ; Seidel, Rimmele & Prenzel 2003 ; Clausen 2002 ). As one tool in a larger research enterprise it will be used to clarify the interrelations between teachers’ cognitions, their classroom actions, and student achievement.