Epistemic Practices and Scientific Practices in Science Education
There is a growing consensus in considering that learning science involves students’ participation in the epistemic goals of science (Duschl, 2008; Kelly, 2008) or that, as Duschl (2008) proposes, science education should balance conceptual, epistemic and
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5. EPISTEMIC PRACTICES AND SCIENTIFIC PRACTICES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION: STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN THE EPISTEMIC GOALS OF SCIENCE
There is a growing consensus in considering that learning science involves students’ participation in the epistemic goals of science (Duschl, 2008; Kelly, 2008) or that, as Duschl (2008) proposes, science education should balance conceptual, epistemic and social learning goals. By epistemic goals we mean goals related to how we know what we know, to how scientific knowledge is constructed. Thus for instance understanding the criteria for evaluating explanations, theories or models, or the criteria for choosing one explanation over alternative ones. The main argument of this chapter is that these purposes may be achieved through placing scientific practices at the centre of science teaching and learning, in an approach that pays attention to their epistemic and social dimensions, besides the conceptual ones. This would mean shifting the focus towards the development and modification of epistemic claims (Duschl & Jiménez-Aleixandre, 2012), of claims related to scientific knowledge, in a perspective conceptualizing epistemic cognition as a practice (Kelly, 2016). The chapter discusses, first, characterizations of epistemic cognition and epistemic practices, as well as the relationships between scientific and epistemic practices; second, characterizations of scientific practices and the translation of these theoretical approaches to policy; third, how to support students’ engagement in the practices of modelling, argumentation and planning and carrying out investigations. EPISTEMIC COGNITION AS A PRACTICE
We may say that the purpose of epistemic practices is to generate knowledge about the world. Epistemic practices (EP) are characterized in a variety of ways. For Kelly (2008) they constitute particular social practices, which are “patterned set of actions, typically performed by members of a group based on common purposes and expectations, with shared cultural values, tools and meanings” (Kelly, 2008, p. 99). He defines epistemic practices as “the specific ways members of a community propose, justify, evaluate, and legitimize knowledge claims within a disciplinary framework” (ibid, p. 99), and distinguishes three types within them, associated with producing, evaluating and communicating knowledge. Drawing from a sociocultural K. S. Taber & B. Akpan (Eds.), Science Education, 69–80. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
M. P. JIMÉNEZ-ALEIXANDRE & B. CRUJEIRAS
perspective and the notion of learning through participation in activities, Kelly (2016) conceptualizes epistemic cognition as a practice, proposing that epistemic practices are constructed in social interaction, and that they include interactionally accomplished understandings of knowing. According to Wickman (2004), who shares this sociocultural, situated cognition approach, epistemic practices reveal students’ underlying practical epistemologies or epistemologies used in specific practices. This perspective foc
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