The construction of scientific explanations is recognised by science education researchers and curriculum developers as one of the core epistemic practices in which students should acquire proficiency. However, little is known about the knowledge and skills that teachers must and do put into practice to successfully engage their students in…

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…

One main obstacle for instructors in inviting students to design knowledge construction is the tension between prioritizing students' ideas and maintaining the scientific validity of the activity. In this study, as a way of supporting students in shaping their own knowledge construction, the establishment of an audience for knowledge was enacted…

Language is a fundamental tool for learning science. This study highlights the importance of teacher knowledge in utilising language as a tool for knowledge generation in the classrooms. This case study examines elementary teachers' development of declarative, procedural, and epistemic knowledge related to using language, particularly focusing on…

Understanding reaction mechanisms is integral to success in organic chemistry; however, prior research suggests that learners struggle with recognizing the importance of underlying implicit features in reaction mechanisms. Because of this struggle, understanding how learners' reason about reaction mechanisms and developing assessments to elicit…

In educational reform initiatives worldwide and in Singapore, educators are increasingly encouraged to take ownership of their work through involvement in practitioner inquiry and evaluation efforts to transform teaching and learning. Educators' epistemological beliefs -- their view of knowledge and knowing -- play a critical role as they learn to…

Prior research highlights a positive effect of incorrect worked examples on mathematics learning. Yet the mechanisms underlying these benefits are unclear. To investigate potential mechanisms of the benefits of various worked example types, we examined process data from a previously published classroom-based experiment. More specifically, we…

This study examined fostering low-achieving students' epistemic understanding of discourse in knowledge building classrooms using video-based visual learning analytics. The participants were two Grade 9 visual arts classes of low-achieving students. The experimental class (n = 33) engaged in a knowledge building classroom supported by video-based…

National standards that centre on the underpinning epistemic practices of the discipline has emphasised the need for teachers to focus much more on knowledge generation approaches to learning. Adopting a complexity perspective, we attempt to understand how teachers shift over time by examining their epistemic orientation to knowledge generation…

In psychology programs, students should acquire both domain-specific knowledge and cross-domain competences important for later practice (e.g., multiple document literacy). Typically, such competences are trained "directly" in courses explicitly devoted to them or indirectly in courses on psychological topics that require them without…

This article articulates a new theory on the ontology of knowledge transfer. This involves the work of 1) showing that the question "what happens to knowledge in transfer across divergent contexts?" can be made sense of within a situative approach, 2) providing a new conceptualization of situated knowledge, 3) articulating transfer in…

In this article, we report findings of students' conceptions of values and impartiality in political science teaching in relation to research on epistemic beliefs. This field of research concerns students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge in different disciplines; beliefs that are central to learning disciplinary knowledge. Interviews were…

Two classic questions in epistemology concern whether knowledge is firstly propositional or firstly practical (the know-that/know-how debate) and whether testimony is a basic source of epistemic justification (the reductionism/anti-reductionism debate about testimony). In this paper, I consider the relationship between these two classic debates in…

The digestive system is a fundamental topic in biological science teaching. Despite its importance, the level of students' knowledge on the topic appears to differ from recommended levels at several educational grades. Their knowledge also seems to be resistant to change; therefore, this discrepancy may be viewed as an epistemological obstacle to…

This study investigated the effect of the metacognitive instruction in which students' epistemic cognitions were explicitly addressed, on tenth-grade students' conceptual understandings regarding force and motion. The participants of the study included 107 (49 female, 58 male) tenth-grade students at two public high schools. A quasi-experimental…