Does Teacher Epistemic Cognition Relate to Their Ability to Promote Investigable NGSS-Aligned Questions?

Abstract

The foundation of science is based on the premise that humans make observations and ask questions about the natural world and then attempt to make sense of it by evaluating available evidence.  These scientific practices became aspects of expected instruction when the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were created.  A key aspect of the NGSS is that science begins when a question about the natural world is raised.   For teachers to meet the expectations of the NGSS, they should allow students to explore phenomena, raise authentic questions, and explore them through inquiry. However, giving students autonomy to raise their questions poses potential issues, primarily what if their questions don’t align with the concepts teachers are required to teach. In this study, we focused on Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) #1, Asking Questions and Designing Problems, by asking a group of teachers with divergent epistemic orientations toward science what they would do in a situation where students raised questions that do not align with the concepts they are required to teach. We presented them vignettes where a teacher taught a lesson where students explored a phenomenon, and their students wrote untestable questions that did not align with the concepts or disciplinary core ideas to be consistent with NGSS. We found that the two groups of teachers have different suggestions on what to do in this situation.