Using Drama and Theater Methodologies to Explore the Epistemic Insights of High School Science Students

• In Event: 47.029 - Epistemic Cognition and Reasoning in Science Learning

Abstract

This study uses drama methodology to explore epistemologies of science with two groups of youth from very different social contexts: a private university preparatory school and an after-school community club. We used a combination of traditional instruments and contemporary methodologies to elucidate perspectives on the nature of science that students brought to the science learning context. Despite the similarity in perspectives revealed in the more traditional nature of science testing format, we have shown how drama activities can reveal very different ways in which the two cohorts mobilize their understandings about science. We propose ways in which these methodologies may be employed by teachers to explore and expand the epistemic insights that students bring to the science classroom.

Authors

• Lydia E Carol-Ann Burke, University of Toronto

• Alison McAvella, OISE/University of Toronto

• Anne Wessels, Tarragon Theatre - Toronto