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Current understandings of science learning revolve around students’ developing the ability to use science concepts and practices to “figure out” aspects of the natural world. One emerging area of focus in this new vision of learning is the emotional work required in students’ participation science sense making. This research focuses on how one teacher supports student reframing of moments of epistemic vexation. After reviewing classroom video, and interviews, three themes emerged: (1) Productive meta-affect is more likely to occur when students understand why the teacher allows for failure to connect ideas or understand scientific concepts, (2) Without explicit attention from the teacher during moments of epistemic vexation, students can disengage from sense-making and (3) When the teacher does not adequately attend to students’ epistemic vexation, students can build solidarity and reach out to each other for emotional support in developing meta-affect.
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“I wanted to break the pencil”: The Teacher’s Role in Reframing Moments of Epistemic Vexation
Science Education has transitioned to science proficiency-- students are to gain the ability to engage in sense making about the natural world (National Research Council [NRC, 2012])--learning to “figure things out” (Passmore, 2014). One emerging area of focus is the emotional work students participate in during science sense making. There is growing recognition that these emotions are not just unnecessary by-products of scientific work, but rather they are part-and-parcel of doing science, as these emotions are part of what “instigates and stabilizes disciplinary engagement” in scientific pursuits (Jaber & Hammer, 2016b, p. 189). The research question that guided this study is: What is the teacher's role in reframing moments of epistemic vexation, so students experience productive meta-affect in the science classroom? After reviewing video footage and student and teacher interviews, three themes emerged: (1) Without reframing from the teacher during moments of epistemic vexation, students disengage from sense-making, (2) Productive meta-affect is more likely to occur when students understand why the teacher allows for failure to connect ideas or understand scientific concepts, and (3) When the teacher does not reframe moments of epistemic vexation, students build solidarity and reach out to each other for emotional support in developing productive meta-affect.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1720587
- PAR ID:
- 10331106
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- National Association of Research in Science Teaching
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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