Students’ capabilities to formulate scientifically researchable questions in upper secondary science education

• A goal for science education is to develop student capabilities to participate in scientific inquiry. This includes various aspects of inquiry; formulating scientifically researchable questions as well as planning, performing, analyzing and presenting science investigations. In science education practices, there is a tradition of using practical or laboratory work to illustrate science concepts; focussing correct answers and reproduction of ready-made scientific knowledge, rather than engaging students in inquiry. Previous research shows that inquiry teaching predominantly engage students in investigating science questions as formulated beforehand by the teacher or a textbook. Little attention has been paid to what might characterize the capability of formulating scientifically researchable questions in school. In this study we draw on a theoretical framework of epistemic practices. Epistemic practices refer to the ways people in a specific community propose, justify, evaluate and legitimize knowledge claims within a disciplinary framework. From this perspective, formulating and developing scientifically researchable questions makes sense only in relation to a motive of knowledge production. The aim of this study is to explore what might characterize students’ capabilities to formulate and develop scientifically researchable questions in upper secondary science education.The collected data consists of video-recordings of student interaction in group-work focussing formulating and developing scientifically researchable questions. Data was collected as part of a design-based study with six classes in three different schools. The video-recordings were transcribed in verbatim and analysed by the means of qualitative content analysis. The preliminary results suggest three themes: Formulation of scientifically researchable questions as:1) Working with the specification of the epistemic object. The theme illustrates how the students elaborated on the meaning of related scientific concepts and discussed cause and effect. 2) Specifying researchability by focussing on how to operationalize the epistemic object. The theme illustrates how the students reformulate their questions as part of a process of discussing e.g. measurability and variables.3) Making value-judgements of epistemic objects. The theme illustrates how the students distinguish between scientific and non-scientific questions and make value-judgements about relevance. The results contribute to an understanding of what the capability to engage in scientific inquiry as participation in collective epistemic work in an upper-secondary school science classroom might entail. The themes are related to the establishing of a specific scientific epistemic object. The results are discussed in relation to previous research in science education and the development of resources for teaching inquiry framing capabilities of inquiry as generic.

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SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

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Didactics

didaktik

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