Tan, Aik-Ling

The role of language in science learning and teaching has been a focus of science education research for over three decades. This rich body of research has led to the insight that learning the language of science is constitutive of learning science: simultaneously with participating in classroom activities and conversations, describing observations and constructing conceptual understanding, students must begin to appropriate the language of science.

This study describes an inquiry approach involving a practitioner-researcher partnership and examines its impact on teachers' capacities to conduct explicit instruction of disciplinary literacy. The partnership comprised iterative cycles of sessions that engaged content teachers in exploring their students’ language challenges using student writing as the stimulus of inquiry. Data from the inquiry sessions and lessons provided evidence of the impact of the inquiry on the teachers. The impact includes self-reported changes in their language sensitivity, beliefs and assessment practices as well as observable changes in their classroom instruction. The relationship between the impact and teacher language awareness are discussed.