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Between theory and data in a Seventh‐grade science class
Author(s) -
Varelas Maria
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2736(199603)33:3<229::aid-tea1>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - dialectic , mathematics education , class (philosophy) , science education , context (archaeology) , conceptual change , pedagogy , bridge (graph theory) , scientific theory , sociocultural evolution , qualitative research , epistemology , psychology , sociology , social science , medicine , paleontology , philosophy , anthropology , biology
A conceptual framework is developed incorporating the dialectic of science (developing theories and collecting and analyzing data) and the dialectic of education (bringing preexisting sociocultural elements to the students and letting the students develop their own understandings). The theory—data dialectic is specified as including both the inductive and deductive directions. Discourse is seen as central to both the activity of science and the educative process, and hence as the bridge between them. In the context of this framework, an empirical study was designed and executed in a seventh‐grade science class. This article presents and analyzes data focusing on (a) how teacher and students moved between theory and data in a unit on sinking and floating, designed to engage the students mostly in the deductive direction of scientific activity; and (b) how the dialectic of education was played out in the classroom as teacher and students were engaged in (a). A qualitative, interpretive methodology was used. Some of the complexities that this science class encountered as teacher and students attempted to engage in the deductive mode of scientific activity are presented and discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.