Identifying Essential Epistemic Heuristics for Guiding Mechanistic Reasoning in Science Learning

Krist, Christina; Schwarz, Christina V.; Reiser, Brian J.

doi:10.1080/10508406.2018.1510404

Cited by 103 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…We recognize that there may be important epistemic messages (Russ, ) that these decisions convey that could (and ideally would) reach beyond a specific activity or even unit. For example, messages about mechanistic accounts or about norms of measurement would ideally persist throughout every investigation, even in new science contexts (Krist, Schwarz, & Reiser, ; Manz, ). Even more broadly, messages about the epistemic framing or sense of how students are allowed and expected to participate would ideally carry over and continue to influence all subsequent activity in a space that was framed similarly (Hutchison & Hammer, ; Rosenberg, Hammer, & Phelan, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opening up curricula to redistribute epistemic agency: A framework for supporting science teaching

Krist

2019

Science Education

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This study proposes a strategic framework to guide teachers' curriculum adaptation, planning, and enactment as a lever for redistributing epistemic agency. This framework intends to position teachers as strategic decision-makers around when and how to open up aspects of their curriculum. We argue that seeing the aspects of Next Generation Science Standardsaligned curricula-the methods of investigation, the anchoring phenomena, and the explanatory models students construct-as entry points for redistributing epistemic agency may help teachers make inroads to shifting their classroom practice towards more responsive instruction. Importantly, our tool acknowledges that there are different "levels" at which teachers might strategically decide to open up space for student decisionmaking. These decisions may have a differential impact on students' subsequent participation in science practices. In this paper, we will use three cases to highlight the specific and incremental ways that teachers can open up aspects of the curriculum and how those openings redistributed epistemic agency in their classroom. We argue that this framework may be used as a tool for engaging teachers in conversation about how they can begin to position students as partners in the epistemic decisions that drive classroom activity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opening up curricula to redistribute epistemic agency: A framework for supporting science teaching

Krist

2019

Science Education

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“…As described above, experiences in the lab were designed for students to practice formulating a scientific question, developing/testing hypotheses, and using the evidence generated to defend claims and practice critique of science in a community (as opposed to specifically understanding pill bug behavior). Undoubtedly, content-specific disciplinary reasoning (Krist, Schwarz, & Reiser, 2019) would be needed to successfully engage in many of these skills. To support this necessary content-specific learning, abbreviated summaries of relevant articles (e.g.…”

Section: Research Methods Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Graduate teaching assistants: sharing epistemic agency with non-science majors in the biology laboratory

McFadden

Fuselier

2020

Discip Interdscip Sci Educ Res

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In teaching laboratories, scientific reasoning and argumentation are often taught in concert so students are provided opportunities to formulate a more nuanced understanding of science-as-practice and science as a social epistemology. Given recent calls to attend to the social aspects of science, we used Critical Contextual Empiricism, a social epistemology of science, as a framework for examining what features of a scientific community emerge in the introductory biology lab. In a case study of six graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), we explored how GTAs encouraged epistemic agency that encouraged their student's efforts at knowledge construction in a community by collecting multiple data sources (e.g. audio recordings, students written work, focus group interviews) over a four-week sequence. Data analysis strategies were inductive, as a series of initial and focused coding were applied to select exchanges garnered from within the lab. Comparative analysis identified common occurrences across each respective case, which then revealed three overarching themes. We intended for GTAs to readily encourage epistemic agency to their students so insights regarding the social nature of knowledge production could be experienced and discussed. When epistemic shifts did occur, GTAs executed discursive moves targeting students' experimental design practices (e.g. defining the dependent variable). Conversely, student's efforts were also delegitimized as GTAs provided specific directives to follow when challenges emerged for students. Finally, GTAs struggled to create a genuine community that modeled exemplary science-as-practice in the lab. Implications discuss how GTAs likely require more targeted support if community-driven learning is going to be successful in these uniquely challenging settings. Finally, working with non-science majors adds an additional layer of importance here given these lab-based experiences are limited and understanding the community's role in generating scientific knowledge is a key component of being scientifically literate.

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“…This cycle may be visualized as a series of snapshots of system-states that describe the properties of the system at any given moment (Vattam et al, 2011). Engaging in mechanistic reasoning about these types of phenomena involves coordinating entitybehavior relationships or properties with system-states into a chain-like sequence of events, connecting several interactions together over space or time (Krist et al, 2019). Mechanistic reasoning is an intersecting form of thinking across multiple scientific practices.…”

Section: The Nesting Season and Winter Season As Part Of The Lk's Lifmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a heuristic, it can help students guide decision-making, evaluation, and reflection as they construct and test scientific ideas. When students use these heuristics they do so in a way that requires them to develop and use mental models, especially when recognized relationships across space and time (Krist et al, 2019), as presented in our study of learning about the LK ecosystem.…”

Section: The Nesting Season and Winter Season As Part Of The Lk's Lifmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Elementary School Students Understand the Complexity of the Lesser Kestrel’s Ecological system?

2020

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Identifying Essential Epistemic Heuristics for Guiding Mechanistic Reasoning in Science Learning

Cited by 103 publications

References 59 publications

Opening up curricula to redistribute epistemic agency: A framework for supporting science teaching

Opening up curricula to redistribute epistemic agency: A framework for supporting science teaching

Graduate teaching assistants: sharing epistemic agency with non-science majors in the biology laboratory

Can Elementary School Students Understand the Complexity of the Lesser Kestrel’s Ecological system?

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