Elementary Students Studying the Relationship of Evidence to Claims Further Develop Their Understanding of Knowledge

• In Event: Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: Discourse, Peer Exchange, and Use of Evidence During Science Learning

Abstract

Elementary classrooms are often sites where naive empiricism reigns. Students must move beyond this epistemological stance if they are to see the purpose and utility of science and if they are to be able to develop critical learning, thinking and reasoning habits. To stimulate this development we have designed and tested an instructional unit, What is Knowledge, which engages students in studying the real-life production of knowledge, the creation and use of evidence, and the process of judging trustworthiness. We will report on the epistemic cultures developing in the participating classroom communities, based on our qualitative analysis of data generated with over one-hundred 3rd and 4th grade students and their teachers during classroom implementation of the unit.

Author

• Susan A. Kirch, New York University