UNDERSTANDING THE TRANSITION TO KNOWLEDGE GENERATION ENVIRONMENTS: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF EPISTEMIC ORIENTATION AND TOOL USE

Abstract

"Current reforms in education have emphasized shifting learning environments from a traditional replicative framework to be much more aligned to knowledge generation environments. These environments are focused on promoting student engagement with the epistemic practices of the discipline, which are the argumentative practices used to generate disciplinary knowledge. Helping teachers to shift from their more traditional pedagogical approaches requires professional development programs that enable them to not only experience learning within a generative environment but to also engage with the theoretical underpinning of such environments. To better understand the complexity involved in helping promote teacher change, the researchers implemented a professional development program that focused on asking teachers to examine their orientation to learning and how this influenced their pedagogical approaches. The knowledge generation approach, Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach, was the focus of the professional development as the work was centered on improving science teaching and learning. The professional development program focused on examining cognitive learning theory, the use of epistemic tools of argument, language and dialogue, the development of pedagogical approaches and development of teaching units that aligned with school curricula. The K-5 teachers were drawn from two states and were involved in 10 days of professional development – 6 during the summer and 4 during the academic year. To study teacher transition to these environments the researchers developed three new survey instruments focus on epistemic tools that are utilized in these environments: argument, dialogue and language. The teachers also completed an epistemic orientation for generative environments survey. Teachers completed these survey instruments every six months across the three years of the project. This presentation focuses on the first year of participation in the project as this represents the critical transition time for teachers in moving to implement the SWH approach within their classrooms. Using Latent Transition Analysis the 95 participating teachers were classified into three initial profiles. During the first six months there were transitions from both low to medium, and medium to high implementation. However, the reasons for the transitions were different. Low to medium transition was around improvements in orientation and dialogue, while for medium to high the transition was around understanding argument. The transitions during the second six months shifted to be centered much more on orientation, than epistemic tools. Once teachers transition to a new profile, they remain at that level or potentially move to the highest profile."