Epistemic agency for costructuring expansive knowledge‐building practices

Bibliographic Data

ID21392664
AuthorsJianwei Zhang (0000-0002-5491-1745, Department of Educational Theory and Practice University at Albany Albany New York USA, corresponding author), Yan Tian (0000-0002-1286-1233, Department of Educational Theory and Practice University at Albany Albany New York USA), Guangji Yuan (0000-0003-3397-4170, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore Singapore), Dan Tao (0000-0002-9437-3646, Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education Beijing Normal University Beijing China)
Year2022
Volume106
Issue4
Pages890-923
Publication date2022-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21717
OpenAlexW4223500453
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited64

As a hallmark of authentic science practices, students need to enact epistemic agency to shape/reshape the key aspects of their inquiry work as a collaborative community. This study elaborates an emergent temporal mechanism for engaging students' epistemic agency: “reflective structuration” by which members of a classroom community coconstruct ever‐evolving inquiry directions and group structures as their collective inquiry work proceeds. Using an interactional ethnography method, we examined how students ( n = 22) in a Grade 5 classroom coconstructed shared inquiry directions and flexible group structures to guide their sustained inquiry about human body systems over 7 months supported by a collaborative online environment. Rich data were collected to trace the work of the eye inquiry group as a telling case. With their teacher's support, students took agentic moves to construct an evolving set of wondering areas as a way to frame what their whole class needed to investigate. Flexible groups, such as the eye inquiry group, emerged and evolved in the various areas, leading to progressively deepening inquiry and extensive idea exchanges among students. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Agency (philosophy) · Class (philosophy) · Construct (python library) · Epistemology · Expansive · Frame (networking) · Group work · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Science education · Set (abstract data type) · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics) · Computer Science · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Engineering · Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy