Talking Science: Language, Learning, and Values

J.L. Lemke

Ablex/JAI Publishing (1990)

INTRODUCTION: TALKING SCIENCE

CHAPTER 1. TWO MINUTES IN ONE SCIENCE CLASSROOM

• Getting Started
• The Unwritten Rules of Classroom Dialogue
• Some Strategies that Play by the Rules
• Finding the Science in the Dialogue
• Teaching Content vs. Keeping Control
• Language, Semantics, and Learning

CHAPTER 2. A LOT OF HEAT AND NOT MUCH LIGHT

• Playing by Another Set of Rules: Teacher-Student Arguments
• The Roots of Confusion: Semantic Conflict and Social Conflict
• Avoiding Easy Answers: Conflict and Values

CHAPTER 3. `IF YOU WEREN'T WHISPERING TO SCOTT, ...'

• Written and Unwritten Rules of Classroom Behavior
• Teacher and Student Strategies of Control
• Rule-breaking and Admonitions
• Teacher and student tactics of control
• Why Rules are Made to be Broken
• Values and Power

CHAPTER 4: THE SCIENCE IN THE DIALOGUE

• Thematic Patterns and Curriculum Content
• Classroom Dialogue and the Curriculum
• Describing Semantic Relationships
• Building Thematic-Conceptual Systems with Language
• Dialogue Strategies
• Monologue Strategies
• Establishing Thematic Patterns: Fundamental Techniques
• Equivalence and Contrast
• Repetition with Variation
• Structural Strategies
• Metadiscourse
• Global Strategies
• Reasoning as a Way of Using Language
• Values and Truth

CHAPTER 5: TEACHING AGAINST THE MYSTIQUE OF SCIENCE

• The One Right Way to Talk Science
• Colloquial Language and Student Attention
• Science as Authoritative and Difficult
• The Ideology of Evidence and Authority
• Undermining Common Sense: The Special Truth of Science
• Education vs. Elitism

CHAPTER 6. HOW DIFFERENT IS SCIENCE?

• Fundamental Similarities Among Subjects
• Some Potentially Important Differences
• Ideology Across the Curriculum

CHAPTER 7: CHANGING THE WAY WE TEACH

• Teaching Students to Talk Science
• Bridging Between Colloquial and Scientific Language
• Teaching About Science and Scientific Method
• Helping All Students Use Science in their Own Interests

CHAPTER 8: MAKING MEANING: THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SEMIOTICS

• The Genealogy of Social Semiotics
• Action, Context, and Meaning
• Practices, Processes, and Communities
• Social Semiotics vs. Mentalism
• Semiotic Resources and Formations
• Activity Structures, Genres, and Thematic Formations
• Thematic Formations, Discourse, and Text
• Intertextuality and Text Semantics
• Heteroglossia and Disjunction
• Social Semiotics and Social Change
• Social Semiotics and Political Responsibility: Making Trouble

APPENDIX A. THE ACTIVITY TYPES OF SCIENCE CLASSROOMS

APPENDIX B: TEACHER AND STUDENT STRATEGIES OF CONTROL

APPENDIX C: SEMANTIC RELATIONS FOR THEMATIC ANALYSIS

APPENDIX D: THEMATIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

APPENDIX E: METHODS USED IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM STUDIES

TRANSCRIPTS OF LESSON EPISODES

REFERENCE LIST

Ablex Publishing Corporation, affiliated with JAI Press. 100 Prospect Street. P.O. Box 811, Stamford, CT 06904-0811. Phone: 203-323-9606. Fax: 203-357-8446.

Aprender a Hablar Ciencia, 1997. Barcelona: Paidos. [Spanish-language edition of Talking Science]