Instance of Evidentiary Phenomenon
| Primary Phenomenon | Evidentiary Phenomenon | How are relevant data presented? † |
How is the evidentiary phenomenon addressed? |
||||||
| Not addressed |
Without data‡ |
With sense-making between the data and phenomenon |
|||||||
|
incidental |
substantive |
done inappropriately |
by students |
for students |
with students | ||||
| 1. Earth’s plates move. | 1.1 Chains of progressively older volcanoes are formed by hot spots. | Data not presented |
0 |
1 |
2 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| Data are provided to students, but are NOT developmentally appropriate for students |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
||
| How was the evidentiary phenomenon addressed?__Not at all__Confirmatory__Exploratory | Developmentally appropriate data are provided to students |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
| Data are collected by students |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
||
† Examples of data include:
- A table or narrative description of age (absolute or relative) of an island vs. distance from a “fixed point” (e.g. hot spot).
- A map of an island chain and hot spot with age (absolute or relative) of islands superimposed on a map.
‡ ”Without data“ can have two meanings. First, the evidentiary phenomenon could have been addressed without students interacting with any data. Second, it could mean that the evidentiary phenomenon was addressed, AND students interacted with data, but the data were not used in sense-making for the evidentiary phenomenon; therefore, effectively, the evidentiary phenomenon was addressed without data.
Matrix Application
The matrix captures two important dimensions of instruction simultaneously: (1) how students engage with data (e.g., not at all, data provided to students, students collect data), and (2) whether and how any sense-making is done from the data to the evidentiary phenomenon. The numbers in the cells represent relative amounts of opportunity to learn about the evidentiary phenomenon; in this case, the idea that chains of progressively older volcanoes are formed by hot spots. Some cells are empty, indicating that no rating is possible. Also, note that the same rating appears in several cells, suggesting that students may have the same amount of opportunity in more than one way. For instance, instruction that provides substantial explanation of a phenomenon but without any data receives a rating of 2, whether no data are presented, or students collect data without opportunity for sense-making. The matrix also provides for taking student engagement into account. For instance, when instruction includes sense-making, it receives a higher rating if students are involved in collecting the data than if the data are provided to them.