Constructing a Collaborative Critique-Learning Environment for Exploring Science Through Improvisational Performance

Abstract

This exploratory design experiment investigates Black male youth's participation in a science-learning environment designed to conceptualize the practice of critique as improvisational performance. The research highlights the young men's deployment of a linguistic practice, signifying, used to co-construct and enact the practice of collaborative critique. Implications include calling for the continued reimagining of teaching and learning science within urban contexts, including the need for educators to develop the required skills for recognizing and building upon students' potential resources. The theoretical and pedagogical choices incorporated in this study contrasts often-utilized discourses of deficiency associated with science education in urban contexts.

“I Broke Your Game!”: critique among middle schoolers designing computer games about climate change

“…This paper highlights the ways in which students participated both in official, designed forms of learning and those that they engaged in when allowed space to make their own decisions. Wright (2019) argues that critique opens pathways for students whose discourse patterns have not been historically valued in schools. This study adds to the conversation in integrated STEM environments on how to include a wider range of discourse patterns in which learners can engage.…”

“…Critique is a learning practice that permeates art, architecture, and design worlds as well as sports and other professional settings (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan, 2007;Soep, 2005). It and its cousin argumentation are also integral to scientific and engineering practice (Osborne, 2010;Wright, 2019). As Wright (2019) has argued, critique at the intersection of science and design, especially with young people, can take many forms and can be both planned and improvised (see also Soep, 2005).…”

“…In professional design spaces, formal critiques help to establish what counts as knowing, and how one should "see" in a discipline (Wright, 2019). Formal critiques are for giving ongoing instruction and support to fellow practitioners, especially to those who are newer to a field (Lymer, 2009).…”

“…Critique is an integral part of design programs that encourage youth engagement (Soep, 2005) and can help students develop the tools necessary not only to be effective designers, but also to judge the quality of others' work (e.g., Hwang, Hung, & Chen, 2014). In addition, recognition of critique as a set of scientific practices can potentially expand what it means to participate in school-based science learning and whose participation is ratified as productive, such as students from underrepresented groups in STEM (Wright, 2019). Yet, the degree to which design curricula encourage and teach students to critique is an open question (Petrina, 2017).…”

Board 24: Promoting the Participation of Elementary School African Americans, Hispanics, and Girls in STEM by Expanding Summer Engineering Experiences

“…Additional possible future opportunities include further consideration of the ways in which the curriculum, assessments, and mentor training can be connected to the youth participants' cultural practices, as well as to examine the experiences of the SEEK campers and SEEK mentors from a sociocultural perspective. For example, we might build on Christopher Wright's study of Black male youths' participation in a STEM program, where Wright explored the linguistic practice of signifying (where the youth used humor, teasing and wordplay) as the youth co-constructed their understanding of STEM concepts and established their own approach to collaborative critique [25]. If we examine the dynamics as teams of SEEK campers address their weekly design challenges, we may find similar linguistic practices and strategies.…”