From Epistemological Constrains towards Epistemological Resources in the Science Classroom

Sammendrag

This paper relates to the research of personal epistemology. Two different models are presented which originate from the areas of research on the developmental levels of epistemological beliefs and the epistemological resources. In addition the concept of pupils’ ‘epistemic views’ is defined for the purpose in this particular study. The empirical aim of this study was to discover how pupils assessed their own knowledge, their physics teacher’s knowledge and also that of scientists. The context of the study was 12 hours of science lessons, during which eighteen 7th-grade pupils were taught the modelling idea connected to the topic ‘structure of matter’. The core data in this qualitative case study was based on post-interviews. The pupils’ views could be classified into all developmental levels of epistemological views. Some of the pupils even possessed beliefs suitable to all levels; this sample challenges the developmental nature of the beliefs. The pupils’ epistemic views were compatible with the epistemological resources model, but also new resources were discovered. It seems that in the science classroom the pupils’ views should be regarded as epistemological resources instead of treating them as epistemological constrains.