Exploring Apprenticeship in the School Setting: First Grade Mini Master Gardeners Teach Kindergartne

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Exploring Apprenticeship in the School
SettingFirst Grade Mini Master Gardeners Teach
Kindergartners About Terrariums
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Abstract

• As a classroom teacher I regularly collected
  artifacts and data for documentation purposes.
• As a doctoral student I am looking at the
  artifacts and data from a new perspective.
• The data that I am analyzing comes from a program
  I created for primary school children called,
  Mini Master Gardeners.
• Central activities in this program resemble
  apprenticeship as described by Lave and Wenger
  (1991)

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Research Focus

• Research questions concern teaching and learning
  a complex practice . . .
• in which children serve both as masters . . .
• and apprentices . . .

• ( making a terrarium and learning about plants )
• ( the more experienced knowledgeable first
  graders )
• ( the kindergartners ).

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The Questions

• In what ways are the kindergartners apprenticing
  to the Mini Master Gardeners?
• How do the masters and the apprentices negotiate
  participation?
• What is taught and what is learned in this
  activity - -and by whom?
• How do the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of the
  Mini Master Gardeners reveal their learning?

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Artifacts and Data

• Video clips of Mini Master Gardeners (MMG)
  conducting sessions in the kindergarten
  classrooms.
• MMG pre- and post- perceptions of scientists
• Letters to experts (scientists)
• Post experience reflections of the Mini Master
  Gardeners
• Kindergartner post experience writing

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The Project in the Classrooms

• Mandated content area instruction was integrated
  and embedded in a training that included a series
  of activities where first graders became master
  gardeners.
• In their master role students returned to former
  K-classrooms to share their expertise.
• K training included two sessions 1. terrarium
  information and discussion of living and
  non-living materials (35-40 min.) 2. K students
  were divided into two groups to each build a
  terrarium. (45-55 min.)
• All instruction and question/answer sessions were
  the exclusive responsibility of the first
  graders.

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Mini-Master Gardeners
First Grade Gardeners Teach Kindergartners
Terrarium Project
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LETS LEARN ABOUT TERRARIUMS Session One
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Living and non-living things will go in the
terrarium.
We will help you make terrariums like this one
when we come the next time.
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LETS MAKE A TERRARIUM Session Two
Everyone has a job.
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Create a miniature landscape, then. . .
EVERYONE gets a chance to use the spray bottle.