This dissertation focused on the outcome of elementary science teachers' learning in theories and practices of epistemic tools in professional workshops over the course of two years, starting in the summer of 2019. Study one focuses on teachers' understanding of language as an epistemic tool. The data were teachers' written responses to a…

In this chapter, we examine the negative impact of excessive teacher entitlement on school life. We argue that teacher entitlement goes beyond individual traits, intricately linked to sociocultural processes and power dynamics within and outside educational institutions. The focus is on theoretical foundations to understand pedagogical practices…

This dissertation examined the relationship between elementary school science teachers' epistemic orientation and classroom learning environment type--generative or replicative--they established for science knowledge development. Drawing on the theory of epistemological development and understanding, the influence of teacher epistemic beliefs on…

Research in science education has emphasized the importance of knowledge generation approaches to learning. Creating generative learning environments requires teachers to address the epistemic underpinning of science practices and shift their orientations toward knowledge generation approaches. This study aimed to propose epistemic orientation as…

The professionalization of teachers is a fundamental and decisive issue for all education systems. This text presents a qualitative research on an original experiment in training future primary school teachers in the nature of science (NOS) and its transposition into teaching practice. It is a script for reading the children's book, "7 souris…

Background: A reformed view of science education positions argumentation as a central epistemic discourse practice in the science classroom, however, science education researchers have found that typical norms of classroom discourse fall short of promoting argumentation. Recent scholarship on teachers' personal epistemologies has suggested that…

The purpose for this self-study was to explore the theoretical and practical understandings of scientific inquiry inherent in our elementary teacher preparation program, specifically those of new instructors. Although scientific inquiry and inquiry-based learning are emphasized in our program, several new instructors, doctoral students hired to…

With school populations across the country becoming increasingly representative of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, new considerations must be made to promote equitable and engaged science learning for all students (National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine [NAEEM], 2011).…

Maker-based learning activities offer benefits to both students and educators; however, there exist few research examples that examine how educators enact a process of identity exploration when implementing maker activities in their instruction. The Projective Reflection framework was used to assess three science educators' identity exploration as…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize engaging students in science practices through which students can develop content, procedural, and epistemic knowledge of science. To accomplish this goal, science teachers must embed science content in authentic science practice. Successfully integrating content and practice will require…

European and international research shows how the child has an attitude, in relation to the knowledge of the natural world, characterized by curiosity and free exploration. My research refers to the theoretical contribution of Dewey ([1933. "How We Think: A Restatement of the Relationship of Reflective Thinking to the Educational…

One understudied barrier to science education reform concerns teachers' cognitive processes and how they relate to instructional decision-making. Epistemic cognition--teachers' beliefs about knowledge and knowledge acquisition and goals for their students' knowledge acquisition--could provide important insights into the choices science teachers…

In the last twenty years in US science education, professional development has emphasized the need to change science instruction from a direct instruction model to a more participatory and constructivist learning model. The result of these reform efforts has seen an increase in science education professional development that is focused on…

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of religion on Turkish early childhood teachers' factuality judgments and reasoning. Participants responded following questions about the story of "Moses's stick": 1) Can Moses run water from a dry fountain just by hitting his stick to the ground? 2) Why, or why not? 3) Would you read…

In an "age of measurement" where students' "qualification" is a hot topic on the political agenda, it is of interest to ask what the "function of qualification" might implicate in relation to a complex issue as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and what function environmental and sustainability issues serve…