%0 PDF %T Building consensus through modeling: A framework for the fitness of ideas in classroom science discourse. %A Shaban, Yara W. %D 2018-10-06 15:01:46 -0400 %8 2018-10-06 %I Tufts University. Digital Collections and Archives. %R http://localhost/files/sf268h55s %X A qualifying paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education. Abstract: Scientists use argumentation, critique, and modeling to generate consensus around particular ideas. Students in science classrooms can be supported to engage in similar knowledge-building discourses. However, they often come up with idiosyncratic representations as they participate in these scientific practices. In this paper, we direct our attention to the dynamics of ideas as a lens to examine why certain ideas were taken up in knowledge-building discourses around condensation. Drawing from memetics, we present the Idea Fitness Framework (IFF), which identifies four selection forces that contribute to an idea’s fitness in student modeling discourses. Using microgenetic and sociogenetic examples of how the forces operate in the classroom, we show how IFF operates as a dynamic system that helps to explain how consensus is reached among fifth-grade students in one class engaged in modeling the process of condensation using computational tools. %G eng %[ 2018-11-08 %9 Text %~ Tufts Digital Library %W Institution