Epistemological understanding in science learning: the consistency of representations across contexts

The influence of explicit nature of science and argumentation instruction on preservice primary teachers' views of nature of science

“…These participants applied their general epistemologies of knowledge across scientific and socioscientific contexts, providing an explanation for the alignment of their expressed views of NOS over all of the assessments. These findings are consistent with those of Leach et al (2000) who proposed that participants can draw on multiple forms of epistemological reasoning in differing contexts, and the application of particular forms of epistemological reasoning may be more or less appropriate depending on the given context. In this study, the prominence of data focused epistemological views expressed by Tom, Sarah, and David, in response to questions regarding data analysis and interpretation during the superconductors survey, reflect an inappropriate application of epistemological reasoning in this context.…”

Teaching and learning in the science classroom: The interplay between teachers' epistemological moves and students' practical epistemology

“…Research indicates that one important factor influencing students' learning of science subject content is the epistemology used in the classroom discourse. Investigations show that students' understanding of the epistemological nature of science can influence how they relate to knowledge presented for them, interpret what the teacher says, and understand the result of laboratory work (e.g., Leach et al, 2000;Meyling, 1997;Roth & Lucas, 1997;Roth & Roychoudhury, 1994;Ryder et al, 1999;Tsai, 1999;Yerrick, Pedersen, & Arnason, 1998). Furthermore, research shows that epistemological commitments of teachers influence their teaching practice and that many teachers' practice can be connected to a positivistic/ objectivistic view of science (e.g., Brickhouse, 1990;Driver, Newton, & Osborne, 2000;Roth & Roychoudhury, 1994;Yerrick et al 1998).…”

Understanding students' practical epistemologies and their influence on learning through inquiry

“…More recent studies using both Driver's protocol (Leach et al, 2000) and Carey's and Smith's interview (Sandoval & Morrison, 2003) show inconsistency in students' beliefs across contexts. In Leach et al's study, students' responses to decontextualized and contextualized open-ended survey items that asked them to reason about the relation between theory and data were found to be inconsistent across the two contexts.…”

“…Epistemological assessments, whether surveys or interviews, routinely ask students to describe the purpose of experimentation or the relation between experimentation and theory, or prior ideas of some sort (Aikenhead, Fleming, & Ryan, 1987;Carey et al, 1989;Cooley & Klopfer, 1963;Lederman et al, 2002;Mackay, 1971;Ryan & Aikenhead, 1992;Smith et al, 2000). Still others ask students to evaluate experimental designs in terms of their capacity to test or discriminate between ideas (e.g., Driver et al, 1996;Koslowski, 1996;Kuhn et al, 1988;Leach et al, 2000;Linn & Songer, 1993), and then researchers draw inferences about how these evaluations reflect epistemological conceptions. Although some surveys have asked students to generally compare disciplines (e.g., Rubba & Andersen, 1978), I know of no studies where diversity of scientific methodologies is an explicit topic.…”