Inquiry-based Science Teaching and Socioscientific Issues in the Classroom: Connections Based on the Analysis of Epistemic Practices

Abstract

This paper analyzes continuities and changes in the constructing epistemic practices in two different instructional contexts: inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) and socioscientific issues (SSI). Based on Ethnography in Education, we followed students in an 8th-grade elementary school classroom for over a year in science lessons. We selected an event to analyze epistemic practices in discursive interactions. Considering other events over the year, the analysis of this event indicates reciprocal relationships between the IBST and SSI approaches. Inquiry-based activities fostered conscious and justified positioning by students in socio-scientific discussions. Socioscientific activities, in turn, catalysed the construction of more complex epistemic practices. Therefore, we defend the pedagogical advantages of articulations between IBST and SSI activities to support science education aims in the 21st century.

Keywords

• epistemic practices
• discursive interactions
• inquiry-based science teaching
• socioscientific issues