New Perspectives in Science Education

Many international reports on the state of science education highlight the role of scientific reasoning and explanations in primary school science [e.g. 1]. In this study we focus on one particular type of explanation and reasoning appropriate for scientific understanding: that involving causal mechanism. Research with children affirms that mechanistic reasoning is present and episodic even in the discourse of young students [2]. Nevertheless, studies also acknowledge the challenges and tensions to foster it within primary science classrooms [3,4]. This study builds on previous literature exploring the opportunities that pre-service teachers give to primary students to use mechanistic reasoning to give causal explanations of investigated phenomena. The study has been carried out within the framework of the “Escola-Universitat” project performed by the Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya. Within this project, 143 last year undergraduate primary teacher students performed short inquiries with primary school children within the facilities of the University. Those classroom inquiries were sistematically videotaped and used for developing students’ self-reflection to foster their professional development.  For the pursuit of this study we analysed videos from these classroom inquiries where pre-service teachers and primary students interactions aimed at constructing explanations of observed phenomena. Specifically, our analysis focused on: (a) what makes mechanistic reasoning appear; (b) which kind of pedagogical moves, responses and resources did or use pre-service teachers in these moments to support and scaffold this kind of reasoning. Results provide insights on characteristics of those interactions helping to determine how they can expand, maintain or shut down opportunities for primary students’ mechanistic reasoning. Implications for primary science teaching and the training of primary school teachers are discussed.

Keywords: scientific explanations, mechanistic reasoning, pre-service teachers, primary education.

References: 

1. Osborne, J., & Dillon, J. (2008). Science education in Europe: Critical reflections. London: The Nuffield Foundation.
2. Russ, R. S., Scherr, R. E., Hammer, D., & Mikeska, J. (2008). Recognizing mechanistic reasoning in student scientific inquiry : A framework for discourse analysis developed from philosophy of science. Science Education, 92, 499–525.
   https: doi/pdf/10.1002/sce.20264
3. Krist, C., Schwarz, C. V., & Reiser, B. J. (2019). Identifying Essential Epistemic Heuristics for Guiding Mechanistic Reasoning in Science Learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(2), 160–205.https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2018.1510404
4. Schwarz, C. V., Braaten, M., Haverly, C., & de los Santos, E. X. (2020). Using Sense-Making Moments to Understand How Elementary Teachers’ Interactions Expand, Maintain, or Shut Down Sense-making in Science. Cognition and Instruction, 0(0), 1–36.
   https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2020.1763349