Implementing an epistemologically authentic approach to student-centered inquiry learning

Abstract

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] This paper discusses the theoretical framework and curriculum materials that form the basis of the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach to learning and teaching physics. ISLE, as a philosophical approach to learning, has two core intentionalities: (i) We want students to learn physics by thinking like physicists; by engaging in knowledge-generating activities that mimic the actual practices of physics and using the reasoning tools that physicists use when constructing and applying knowledge. (ii) The way in which students learn physics should enhance their well being. These intentionalities form the basis upon which we build a bricolage of multiple theoretical perspectives. We will show how the ISLE approach and its implementation is shaped by (a) the epistemological commitments of physics, (b) the findings of cognitive science, (c) theories of learning communities, and (d) the perspective of universal design. We will present both qualitative and quantitative data that demonstrate the effectiveness of ISLE in helping students to achieve our intentionalities. We conclude with a call to curriculum developers and implementers to explicitly articulate their intentionalities and theoretical perspectives so that we may forge deeper connections between educational theories, curriculum development, and implementation.