Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Keywords: documentary, interactive, live, liveness, ephemerality, interactivity, theater, performance, television, televisuality, database, data, live data, real time Abstract: The field of documentary is undergoing a transformation as it collides with digital technologies. A new arena of Interactive Documentary production is thriving, and critics and scholars are taking note. Within this field, there is less attention to new opportunities and new theoretical challenges for live practices within the documentary sphere. This thesis argues for a fuller conceptualization of Live Documentary practice. First, it questions the current state of assumptions about documentary, as a form related to the 'document,' as a particularly film-leaning form, and as a lasting and historicizing form of discourse. Next, it examines the historical underpinnings of two forms of live documentary practice and exemplar projects of each: Live Performance Documentary and Live Subject Documentary. The former is situated in the media category of live theater and performance, and the second, the author will argue, is an instantiation of television in its earliest configuration as a device for two-way audio-visual communications and not just unidirectional broadcasting. The study concludes by positing a third medium-specific form of live documentary native to the computer, the Live Data Documentary. This final, more speculative form is defined by drawing on the meanings of 'liveness' examined in the previous chapters and the history of real time computing to generate a suggested framing for computer-native live documentary practice. / by Julie Fischer. / S.M. in Comparative Media Studies

Critical Thinking has been identified in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as skills needed to prepare students for advanced education and the future workforce. In science education, argument-based inquiry (ABI) has been proposed as one way to improve critical thinking. The purpose of the current study was to examine the possible effects of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach, an immersion argument-based inquiry approach to learning science, on students' critical thinking skills. Guided by a question-claims-evidence structure, students who participated in SWH approach were required to negotiate meaning and construct arguments using writing as a tool throughout the scientific investigation process. Students in the control groups learned science in traditional classroom settings. Data from five data sets that included 4417 students were analyzed cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Yearly critical thinking gain scores, as measured by Form X of Cornell Critical Thinking Test, were compared for students who experienced the SWH approach versus students who experienced traditional instruction in both elementary (5th grade) and secondary schools (6th-8th grades). Analyses of yearly gain scores for data sets that represented a single year of implementation yielded statistically significant differences favoring SWH over traditional instruction in all instances and statistically significant interactions between gender and grade level in most instances. The interactions revealed that females had higher gain scores than males at lower grade levels but the reverse was true at higher grade levels. Analyses from data sets that included two years of implementation revealed higher overall gains for SWH instruction than for traditional instruction but most of those gains were achieved during the first year of implementation. Implications of these results for teaching critical thinking skills in science classrooms are discussed in detail.

The purpose of this study was to examine the patterns of dialogue that were established and emerged in one experienced fifth-grade science teacher's classroom that used the argument-based inquiry (ABI) and the ways in which these patterns of dialogue and consensus-making were used toward the establishment of a grasp of science practice. Most current studies on ABI agree that it does not come naturally and is only acquired through practice. Additionally, the quality of dialogue is also understood to be an important link in support of student learning. Few studies have examined the ways in which a teacher develops whole-class dialogue over time and the ways in which patterns of dialogue shift over time. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) What were the initial whole-class dialogue patterns established by a fifth-grade science teacher who engaged in ABI? (2) How did the science teacher help to refine whole-class dialogue to support the agreeability of ideas constructed over time? This eighteen week study that took place in a small city of less than 15,000 in Midwestern United States was grounded in interactive constructivism, and utilized a qualitative design method to identify the ways in which an experienced fifth-grade science teacher developed whole-class dialogue and used consensus-making activities to develop the practice of ABI with his students. The teacher in this study used the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach to ABI with twenty-one students who had no previous experience engaging in ABI. This teacher with 10 of years teaching experience was purposefully selected because he was proficient and experienced in practicing ABI. Multiple sources of data were collected, including classroom video with transcriptions, semi-structured interviews, after lesson conversations, and researcher's field notes. Data analysis used a basic qualitative approach. The results showed (1) that the teacher principally engaged in three forms of whole-class dialogue with students; talking to, talking with, and thinking through ideas with students. As time went on, the teacher's interactions in whole-class dialogue became increasingly focused on thinking through ideas with students, while at the same time students also dialogued more as each unit progressed. (2) This teacher persistently engaged with students in consensus-making activities during whole-class dialogue.These efforts toward consensus-making over time became part of the students' own as each unit progressed. (3) The classroom did not engage in critique and construction of knowledge necessarily like the community of science but rather used agreeing and disagreeing and explaining why through purposeful dialogic interactions to construct a grasp of science classroom practice. The findings have informed theory and practice about science argumentation, the practice of whole-class dialogue, and grasp of science practice along four aspects: (1) patterns of dialogue within a unit of instruction and across units of instruction, (2) the teacher's ability to follow and develop students' ideas, (3) the role of early and persistent opportunities to engage novice students in consensus-making, and (4) the meaning of grasp of science practice in classroom. This study provides insight into the importance of prolonged and persistent engagement with ABI in classroom practice.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur elever samtalar när de möter en uppgift som syftar till att öva deras förmåga att använda ett naturvetenskapligt arbetssätt. Undersökningen genomfördes genom att fyra grupper om två elever fick en uppgift där de formulerade frågeställningar kring en isballong (en frusen vattenballong). Samtalen spelades in på band. Inspelningarna transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av en praktisk epistemologisk analys utifrån tre olika kategorier: samtal inom diskursen, samtal om diskursen och samtal utanför diskursen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att de flesta eleverna har, trots att de har ringa eller ingen erfarenhet av att arbeta med natruvetenskapligt arbetssätt, ganska lätt att ta till sig uppgiften. Resultatet visar även att det inte är samtal som ligger utanför ramen för uppgiften som utgör det största hindret för eleverna att arbeta med uppgiften, utan i stället att det är samtal som rör uppgiftens utformning.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach on 9th grade students&rsquo / understanding of chemistry concepts and chemistry achievement in chemical changes and mixtures units. Four 9th grade classes taught by the two chemistry teachers from a public high school were selected for the study. Each teacher&rsquo / s one intact class was assigned as the experimental group and the other class was assigned as the control group. Students in the experimental group were instructed by the SWH approach, while those in control groups were instructed with traditionally designed chemistry instruction. Tests measuring students&rsquo / conceptual understanding and achievement in the units of chemical changes and mixtures were administered as pre-test and post-test to students in both groups, and a test measuring students&rsquo / attitudes toward chemistry was administered to students in both groups at the beginning of the instruction. At the end of the instruction, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 students from experimental group and 8 students from control group. The quantitative data were analyzed by using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). The results revealed that the SWH approach was superior to the traditional approach on students&rsquo / understanding of the concepts in the units of chemical changes and mixtures. In addition, interview results indicated that students in experimental group demonstrated better scientific understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts compared to those in control group. The interview results also showed that students in experimental group developed positive attitudes toward chemistry and SWH approach.

abstract: This teacher research study examined the effects of utilizing an intervention of Science Writing Heuristics (SWH) as a tool to increase learning during laboratory activities. Five of my eighth grade general science classes participated in this study. Two classes utilized SWH during their laboratory activities (the treatment group) and three classes performed and wrote up their labs in the more traditional, teacher-directed approach (the control group). The assessment scores of the students in the treatment group were compared to the assessment scores of the students in the control group. The post-assessments were analyzed utilizing a t-test. I was teacher in this study and the teacher of all five classes. Data from 41 students were analyzed in this study. A pre-assessment, six laboratory activities, instruction, and a post-assessment occurred within three weeks. The assessments were generated by myself and I performed a t-test using a two-sample analysis, assuming unequal variances (n=16 for treatment group, n=25 for control group) to compare the post-assessments from each group. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the post-assessment scores of the treatment group with the post-assessment scores of control group (p=0.25). However, the t-test results revealed that when the pre- and post-assessments were compared, there was a significant difference (p=<0.05 for treatment group, p=<0.05 for control group). Each group showed considerable cognitive improvement between pre-assessment (mean scores: 52%-treatment group and 53%-control group) and the post-assessment (mean scores: 72%-treatment group and 80%-control group). This suggests that the presentation of the curriculum lacked a clear distinction between the treatment group and the control group yet benefited most students. Due to circumstances described in the limitations, further research is warranted. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Curriculum and Instruction 2015

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The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an immersive argument based learning environment on students’ multimodal competencies. The objective was to study the impact on students learning as they engage in an ABI classroom, centered on the SWH approach, when compared to students in traditional classrooms. Summary writing samples were collected and coded for informational text features which allowed us to understand cohesion with the learners. Additionally, we were able to study these impacts longitudinally, measuring teacher experience and student exposure to this learning environment. Studies of this nature have been done but only with upper grades, never had it been done with early learners, kindergarten through second grade. These summary writing samples were collected and analyzed in two different groups, the first containing 601 samples and the second 760 samples. A factor analysis was performed to examine the internal structure of the features, resulting in the creation of 3 factors: illustrations, text signals and organizers, and graphics. This allowed us to measure acceleration of the learners multimodal skills and the cohesion related to experience, both of classroom and teacher experience. The results of this study have shown that we are able to significantly impact students rate of usage of informational text features by altering the learning environment. We are able to demonstrate significant rates of growth in usage of higher order skills and cohesion amongst science concepts. This is important as we look to find ways to close achievement gaps, increase interest in science, and help students become more effective learners. The results show great promise for immersive ABI as a means to engage young learners in rigorous, valuable learning experiences.