• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.229-254
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• 2021

Students' participation in epistemic practices, which are related to knowledge construction on the part of students, is becoming a crucial part of learning (Goizueta, 2019). Research on epistemic practices in science education draws attention to teachers' support of students to engage in epistemic practices in mathematics instruction. The research highlights a need for incorporating epistemic goals, along with conceptual and social goals, into instruction to promote students' epistemic practices. In this paper, I investigate how teachers interact with students to integrate epistemic goals. I examined 24 interaction excerpts that I identified from six interview transcripts of two beginning teachers' mathematics instruction. Each excerpt was related to the teachers' talk about their specific interaction(s) in a small group. I explored how each teacher's discursive moves and goals were conceptual, social, and epistemic-related as they intervened in small groups. I found that both teachers used conceptual, social, and epistemic discursive move but their discursive moves were related only to social and social goals. This paper suggests supporting teachers to develop epistemic goals in mathematics instruction, particularly in relation to small groups.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.131-136
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• 2021

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.137-173
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• 2021

Research and national standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States, promote the development and implementation of K-12 interdisciplinary curricula integrating the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM+CS). However, little research has explored how teachers provide epistemic support in interdisciplinary contexts or the factors that inform teachers' epistemic support in STEM+CS activities. The goal of this paper is to articulate how interdisciplinary instruction complicates epistemic knowledge and resources needed for teachers' instructional decision-making. Toward these ends, this paper builds upon existing models of teachers' instructional decision-making in individual STEM+CS disciplines to highlight specific challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary approaches on classroom epistemic supports. First, we offer considerations as to how teachers can provide epistemic support for students to engage in disciplinary practices across mathematics, science, engineering, and computer science. We then support these considerations using examples from our studies in elementary classrooms using integrated STEM+CS curriculum materials. We focus on an elementary school context, as elementary teachers necessarily integrate disciplines as part of their teaching practice when enacting NGSS-aligned curricula. Further, we argue that as STEM+CS interdisciplinary curricula in the form of NGSS-aligned, project-based units become more prevalent in elementary settings, careful attention and support needs to be given to help teachers not only engage their students in disciplinary practices across STEM+CS disciplines, but also to understand why and how these disciplinary practices should be used. Implications include recommendations for the design of professional learning experiences and curriculum materials.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.173-187
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to clarify the specific terms of epistemic and epistemological by reviewing the literature on epistemological understanding of science learning, examine the necessity of epistemic discourse analysis based on the view of social epistemology, and provide an exemplar of practical epistemology analysis for elementary children's science learning. The review was conducted in terms of meaning and terminology about epistemic or epistemological approach to science learning, epistemology of/for science, and methodologies for epistemic discourse analysis. As an alternative way of epistemic discourse analysis in science classroom I employed practical epistemology analysis (by Wickman), evidence-explanation continuum (by Duschl), and DREEC diagram (by Maeng et al.). The methods were administered to an elementary science class for the third grade where children observed sedimentary rocks. Through the outcomes of analysis I sought to understand the processes how children collected data by observation, identified evidence, and constructed explanations about rocks. During the process of practical epistemology analysis the cases of four categories, such as encounter, stand-fast, gap, and relation, were identified. The sequence of encounter, stand fast, gap, and relation showed how children observed sedimentary rocks and how they came to learn the difference among the rocks. The epistemic features of children's observation discourse, although different from scientists' discourses during their own practices, showed data-only conversation, evidence-driven conversation, or explanation inducing conversation. Thus I argue even elementary children are able to construct their own knowledge and their epistemic practices are productive.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

This study aims to explore students' epistemic practices and considerations, which are explained as underlying epistemic thoughts that guide their epistemic practices, during argumentation in science classrooms. We also investigated how collaborative reflection facilitated the development of such epistemic considerations. Two seventh-grade classes participated in this study by engaging in argumentation activities and collaborative reflection after classes. A group with students' change in epistemic aspects and the influence of collaborative reflection clearly revealed from their practices was chosen as a focus group. We recorded their class discussions and collaborative reflections with the researchers. Transcriptions of the recordings and checklists we collected during the collaborative reflections were used for analysis. Results showed evident changes in the students' epistemic considerations and practices and four factors facilitating such developments were identified. First, the researcher facilitating the students to recognize each other as collaborators during collaborative reflection led development of epistemic considerations on "audience using the knowledge products." Second, the collaborative reflection facilitated construction of context for peer interactions where the students encouraged each other to participate in the discussion, resulting in the development of other students' epistemic considerations on "justifications in knowledge products." Third, the items provided on the checklists explicitly delineated expectations on their practices in argumentation, also facilitating development of epistemic considerations. Lastly, the students' imitation of the researcher's pattern of discourse facilitated construction of causal explanation and development of epistemic considerations on "nature of the knowledge products." This study will contribute to the construction of strategies that develop students' epistemic considerations and productive epistemic practices in argumentation.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.405-420
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• 2020

There have been mixed reports about the idea of utilization of resources developed from one discipline across disciplinary areas. Grounded with the argument that critical thinking is not domain-specific (Mulnix, 2012; Vaughn, 2005), we developed a theoretical model of intellectual resources (IR) that students develop and use when learning and doing mathematics and science. The theoretical model shows that there are two parallel epistemic practices students engage in science and mathematics - searching for reasons and giving reasons (Bailin, 2002; 2007; Mulnix, 2012). Applying Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Model to the data of 9,300 fourth grade students' responses to standardized science and mathematics assessments, we verified the theoretical model empirically. Empirically, the theoretical model is verified in that fourth graders do use the two epistemic practices, and the development of parallel practices in science impacts the development of the two practices in mathematics: A fourth grader's ability to search for reasons in science affects his or her ability to search for reasons in mathematics, and the ability to give reasons in science affects the same ability use in mathematics. The findings indicate that educators need to open ideas of sharing development of epistemic practices across disciplines because students who developed intellectual resources can utilize these in other settings.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.175-199
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• 2021

The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach is described as an immersive argument-based science inquiry focusing particularly on learning through epistemic practices. In the literature, several previous studies indicate how academic achievement is positively influenced by the SWH. In addition to these previous studies, several meta-syntheses of qualitative data have been conducted on this particular topic. With these literatures in mind, a quantitative meta-analysis was conducted with ten studies (N = 724) to examine the effectiveness of the SWH on student achievement in Turkey. To present a thoroughly detailed report, this study also examined the following moderators: grade level, subject area, school location, intervention length, and report source. Overall, this study found that in Turkey, the SWH classrooms performed better in academic achievement tests than traditional lecture-based classrooms. Additionally, the SWH is more likely to be effective regardless of grade levels, subject areas, and school locations.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.171-186
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• 2018

Recent research has shown that elementary school students can experience epistemic affect -emotions and feelings experienced within epistemic practices, such as the enjoyment of having a wonderful idea or uncomfortable feeling of at a cognitive dissonance- during modeling process. This study explores how an introverted elementary student could participate in the modeling process by constructing an epistemic affect. Based on the theory of constructed emotion, we analyzed one elementary student's constructed epistemic affect using data resources such as emotion diaries, video recordings, and post interviews. We selected one introverted student (a fifth grader), showing peripheral and full participation during modeling. Specifically, we explored which emotions were constructed when she participated in modeling peripherally -and which epistemic affect was constructed when she participated fully- during the construction, evaluation, and revision processes. The research results showed, first, that the introverted elementary student came to participate in the model construction process by constructing the epistemic affect called aha. Second, the results showed that she came to participate in the model revision process by constructing the epistemic affect called feeling that the reasoning was wrong when confronting the rebuttals of the other student. Finally, she came to participate in the model evaluation process by constructing the epistemic affect called dislike of another student's idea. Through our exploration of the constructed epistemic affect of the introverted elementary student, we deduced that it is important to help each student to construct an epistemic affect that facilitates his or her participation in modeling. Also, we discussed that it is important to understand the impact of the emotional load that can occur for each student, depending on the constructed past, present, and future emotions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.101-113
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• 2019

This study aims to explore which aspects of student agency have previously been studied and the ways agent practices have been investigated in learning communities in research on science education. Results reveal five aspects of agency related to students' actions in a learning community: epistemic agency, transformative agency, educated action in science, disciplinary agency, and material agency. We delineated how agency is captured in epistemic practices, as described in the literature on each of the aforementioned aspects. We also probed into the three approaches by which previous research has examined the practices of students as agents that construct learning communities. These approaches are (a) the investigation of students' actions as representative of the agency of an entire learning community, (b) the exploration of the effects of focused student action on the structure of activity, and (c) the investigation of interactions between students as agents. We discussed the implications of previous research on the basis of each approach to understanding the diverse features of student-centered learning communities. The present work contributes to the exploration and support of students' practices as agents in the learning communities in science classrooms.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate the history of and recent trends in science education research on emotion and explore the direction of future development. A comprehensive review of literature was conducted, and the results were organized according to research questions. Science education research on emotion began in the state of confusion because a number of concepts coexisted and overlapped in the concept of affect. More systematic approaches were then used when science-related attitudes were divided into the two categories of scientific attitudes and attitudes toward science. The research continued to study on positive and negative emotions relevant to science learning. However, the complex relationship between cognition and emotion and the limitation of the dichotomy dealing with emotions as external factors influencing student learning were revealed. By contrast, the recent research on epistemic emotions were based on the new perspective that scientific practices are accompanied with emotions and that cognition and emotion are integrated into the practices, influencing each other. Therefore, research should be carried out in ways that can help science educators understand a variety of emotions emerging in learning science through scientific practices and respond appropriately to even negative emotions of students.