Document Type

Conference Paper

Journal/Book Title/Conference

National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Conference

Location

Seattle, WA

Publication Date

4-22-2026

Funder

ASPIRE Engineering Research Center

First Page

1

Last Page

30

Abstract

While research has emphasized the role of classroom discourse, hands-on demonstrations, and carefully crafted prompts in eliciting and responding to students’ ideas, there’s a need to investigate how the systematic design of modeling instruction can serve as the structure that naturally supports responsive teaching. Drawing on the knowledge in pieces (KiP) epistemology and the concept of responsive teaching, we present an instructional approach called guided reflective refinement (GRR), which guides students to articulate and examine their thinking through building and evaluating models. We analyzed middle school students’ model drafts over a 7-day unit on conservation of energy to understand the impact of our approach. Specifically, we provide a case study analysis to operationalize GRR through the construction and iterative refinement of models as a pedagogical anchor for responsive teaching and an assessment strategy for capturing conceptual growth.

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