Gregory J. Kelly

Students’ reasoning about electricity: combining performance assessments with argumentation analysis

In this paper a set of methodological procedures to analyse students’ arguments is presented. Normative perspectives from the philosophy of science and naturalistic perspectives from sociolinguistics are brought together to analyse students dyadic discourse. The Toulmin layout of arguments was interpreted and applied to student arguments as they completed an electricity‐based performance assessment. Results showed that in these contexts students could complete the task without warranting all arguments. Conditions leading to the warranted arguments are explored. The paper concludes by suggesting extensions of this methodology for further research in science education.

Ways of Knowing beyond Facts and Laws of Science: An Ethnographic Investigation of Student Engagement in Scientific Practices

In this study, an anthropological perspective informed by sociolinguistic discourse analysis was used to examine how teachers, students, and scientists constructed ways of investigating and knowing in science. Events in a combined fourth- and fifth-grade elementary class were studied to document how the participating teacher provided opportunities for students to diverge from the intended curriculum to pursue their questions concerning the behavior of sea animals in a marine science observation tank. Analysis of the classroom discourse identified ways that particular teaching strategies provided opportunities for student engagement in scientific practices. Implications of this study for the teaching of science in elementary classrooms include the value of student-initiated science explorations under the conditions of uncertainty and for topics in which the teacher lacked relevant disciplinary knowledge.

Methodological considerations for studying science-in-the-making in educational settings

In this paper we explore the methodological implications of sociocultural approaches for the study of scientific knowledge and practices. Research in science studies and science education is reviewed with a focus on methodological considerations. Informed by empirically-based studies of scientific practices from multiple disciplinary perspectives, we describe our perspective for investigating science education which combines ethnography and discourse analysis. This theoretical position on the discursive nature of the social construction of school science-in-the-making forms the basis for theoretical and methodological critique and discussion. We provide a review of the history of nature of science (NOS) research to trace the methodological influence of Science and Technology Studies in science education. Four methodological issues associated with studying science as cultural practices are discussed: the local and contingent nature of situated definitions of science; theory dependence and coherence of research methodologies; attention to the study of school science-in-the-making; and reflexivity.

Common Task and Uncommon Knowledge: Dissenting Voices in the Discursive Construction of Physics Across Small Laboratory Groups

In this article, we investigate the multiple roles of dissenting voices in conversations for four Grade 12 physics laboratory student groups. The theoretical orientation draws from sociolinguistics and ethnography to construct a framework for examining the discursive practices of students using microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) data acquisition technologies. The empirical analysis considers the ways each of the four groups negotiated an understanding of a common task involving computer representations of oscillatory motion. The analyses show how the construction of physics tasks by the different student groups involved more than doing, talking, and knowing physics; it also involved establishing and maintaining positions and relationships within the group, negotiating what counts as an appropriate contribution to the developing text, and defining the limits and direction of the task. Results show how a common task led to differential contexts for learning physics, to the construction of different public texts, and to the development of different opportunities for learning physics. In particular, student take up of dissenting positions to group decisions is presented as a way of understanding the differential influence of individual contributions to group interpretations.

Science learning and epistemology

Learning theories presuppose views about knowledge. Different learning theories in science rely on, and draw from, various epistemological perspectives. In this chapter, we will examine the relationship between learning and epistemology in science education. We consider the ways that history, philosophy, and sociology of science have informed learning theory (disciplinary perspective), ways that students’ personal epistemologies influence learning (personal ways of knowing), and emerging studies of practical epistemologies that consider ways that disciplinary practices are enacted interactionally in learning contexts (social practices perspective). We consider how conceptions of knowledge are operationalized in science learning research across these perspectives and draw implications for research in science education.

Research traditions in comparative context: A philosophical challenge to radical constructivism

Constructivism in science education has incorporated a multitude of perspectives. Many of these perspectives agree with the general assertion that knowledge is constructed. Two such projects are conceptual change theory and radical constructivism. In this article, I distinguish these two traditions based on four issues: ontology; epistemological commitments; view of learners; and authority of received ideas. I bring a philosophy of science perspective to bear, treating conceptual change theory and radical constructivism as Lakatosian research programs. Through this process the philosophical coherence of the radical constructivist research program is brought into question.

Evolution of qualitative research methodology: Looking beyond defense to possibilities

The authors discuss where qualitative research may be headed in the light of where it has been, situating their conversation in the current political context.

Communicative Demands of Learning Science Through Technological Design: Third Grade Students’ Construction of Solar Energy Devices

Abstract In this study, we examine the communicative demands placed on third grade students through their participation in a solar technology design and construction project. Drawing from sociocultural studies of science in schools and other settings, we used a discourse analytic approach to identify what students in this class needed to understand and express in order to complete this technical design and construction project. Our analysis identified six broad categories of discourse practices constructed by the members of the classroom across the academic activities. Students were required to engage in a variety of discourses as they defined roles with other student members of their small groups, negotiated ways of accomplishing the academic task, presented their ideas and products to multiple audiences, and distributed credit among student group members. Participation in this instructional approach afforded students opportunities to learn science as they participated in cycles of design, presentation, and production of their solar devices. We consider the technological design and construction activities in the context of educational reform through a discussion of the state and national science education standards. Educational implications are drawn focusing on the value of communication in inquiry, the use of ideas-in-progress, the assessment of student knowledge through discourse, and the ways educational discourse processes are situated in cultural practices.

What Counts as Evidence and Equity

Editorial introduction to Vol. 34 of Review of Research in Education (American Educational Research Association/Sage).

Crossing the Border from Science Student to Science Teacher: Preservice Teachers’ Views and Experiences Learning to Teach Inquiry

Preservice science teachers face numerous challenges in understanding and teaching science as inquiry. Over the course of their teacher education program, they are expected to move from veteran science students with little experience learning their discipline through inquiry instruction to beginning science teachers adept at implementing inquiry in their own classrooms. In this study, we used Aikenhead’s (Sci Educ 81: 217–238, 1997, Science Educ 85:180–188, 2001) notion of border crossing to describe this transition preservice teachers must make from science student to science teacher. We examined what one cohort of eight preservice secondary science teachers said, did, and wrote as they both conducted a two-part inquiry investigation and designed an inquiry lesson plan. We conducted two types of qualitative analyses. One, we drew from Costa (Sci Educ 79: 313–333, 1995) to group our preservice teacher participants into one of four types of potential science teachers. Two, we identified successes and struggles in preservice teachers’ attempts to negotiate the cultural border between veteran student and beginning teacher. In our implications, we argue that preservice teachers could benefit from explicit opportunities to navigate the border between learning and teaching science; such opportunities could deepen their conceptions of inquiry beyond those exclusively fashioned as either student or teacher.