Four-phase learning progression for onboarding novice science readers into text-based explanatory modeling

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

The Strand 2 design work produced "a four-phase learning progression" staging the introduction and progressive deepening of learning goals. Phase 1 establishes classroom routines supporting reading, reasoning, and talking about biology; Phase 2 moves students from generic strategies to those tailored to biological principles and models; Phase 3 instantiates the routines in inquiry constructing explanatory models motivated by driving questions or conundra intended to induce puzzlement; Phase 4 deepens modeling by constructing, justifying, and critiquing alternative models with more independent work. Practices are introduced through modeling and explicit instruction, then scaffolded with templates providing language stems, following a cycle of individual, small-group, and whole-class discussion.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Iterative instructional cycle: modeled practices followed by scaffolded student use with feedback
• Sequenced text sets reflecting a range of complexity and representational forms

Constraints

• Weeks per phase were approximations expected to vary across teachers and classrooms

Target Learners

• ninth-grade biology students

Learning Goals

• close reading of science texts
• synthesis across sources
• constructing, justifying, and critiquing explanatory models

Claims

Related Designs

• Readi Eba Reading For Understanding Framework
• Persona progression model: a four-stage AI-instructor persona (Guide→Collaborator→Peer→Launcher) operationalizing the Gradual Release of Responsibility framework for AI-mediated instruction
• Six-stage hearing–seeing–doing e-learning session with interleaved motivation questionnaires
• ICE-T: a didactic framework integrating intermodal transfer, computational thinking, and explanatory thinking for ML education

Examples

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Key Sources

• Susan R. Goldman, Cynthia Greenleaf, Mariya Yukhymenko-Lescroart, Willard Brown, Mon-Lin Monica Ko, Julia M. Emig, MariAnne George, Patricia Wallace, Dylan Blaum, & M. Anne Britt. (2019). Explanatory Modeling in Science Through Text-Based Investigation: Testing the Efficacy of the Project READI Intervention Approach. American Educational Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219831041

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	readi-four-phase-science-learning-progression
title	Four-phase learning progression for onboarding novice science readers into text-based explanatory modeling
description	The Strand 2 design work produced "a four-phase learning progression" staging the introduction and progressive deepening of learning goals.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-01
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — susan-r-goldman-2019

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