A Design-Based Research Of Connecting Classroom Science With Everyday Lives In A Middle School Science Classroom

This study was prompted by a shift in science education policy and research towards ’everyday practice’.On the one hand,science education is faced with the dilemma of students not being able to use what they have learnt in their everyday lives,and the confusion of how science teachers can respond to students’ everyday lives in the classroom.Against this backdrop,this study takes a design-based research approach to connect everyday lives with the middle school science classroom and create hybrid spaces through learning environment design.On the one hand,it elicits and responds to students’ everyday discourses and practices.On the other hand,it supports students to critically reflect on their everyday lives using scientific practices and knowledge.Finally,this study collected 76 eighth grade science lessons videos,classroom observation notes,about 265 minutes of audio interviews with teachers and other written materials.Based on this,this study attempted to understand the development of epistemic agency in the science classroom through micro-interaction analysis from the perspective of epistemic agency.The findings show that in a typical school science space,students learn science by doing exercises,taking notes,learning science concepts by following a map,and conducting scientific investigations as ’lab technicians’.Besides,two types of non-designed hybrid spaces serve the teacher’s need of teaching science concepts,so the students have very limited epistemic agency.In the designed hybrid spaces,teachers empower students through three types of teaching practices:giving students cognitive pressure to construct scientific ideas through a range of discursive moves;positioning students as scientific experts by promoting their problem solving based on real life situations;and making science as a public enterprise through a variety of means such as repetition and revoicing,summarizing,organizing peer review,encouraging students to share ideas in public.Correspondingly,students demonstrate greater epistemic agency in the designed hybrid spaces,including engaging in scientific practices,beginning to pay attention and respond to peer’s ideas,and tentatively negotiating learning opportunities with teachers.Based on these findings,this study points out that the creation and maintenance of hybrid spaces call for epistemic education;and that teachers need to develop trust in themselves and their students,reimagine science teaching and learning,and develop a range of discursive moves in order to facilitate the redistribution of epistemic agency in hybrid spaces.