“This Is a Tool for You to Use”: Expansive Framing and Adaptive Transfer in Two PBL Science Classrooms

Abstract

This dissertation is a qualitative, comparative case study investigating productive disciplinary engagement, framing for transfer, and tool use in two high school science classrooms. My goal was to investigate the implementation of material resources that were developed to support students’ engagement, driven by my primary research question: How does the implementation of material tools as a learning resource support or impede students’ productive disciplinary engagement in a project-based learning setting? Using a grounded theory approach, I analyzed video transcriptions and interviews of two teachers and their students at the same school as they enacted a coordinated project-based, advanced placement curriculum as part of a design-based implementation research project. Findings suggest that intentional framing and use of tools may help teachers support students in making connections across multiple parts of a project in ways that facilitate productive engagement in the discipline of science as well as students building on and adapting their knowledge over time.