Waterbury Lecture Series: Students’ enactment of epistemic practices in the science classroom

Professor Marilar Jimenez-Aleixandre of the Department of Science Education at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain will present a lecture for the Waterbury Series on May 16, 2013, in the Krause Innovation Studio. The lecture will report on current research at the University of Santiago de Compostela that is examining students' enactment of epistemic practices in the science classroom. A reception is scheduled to follow the lecture.

Professor Jimenez-Aleixandre's previous research has examined how the epistemic practices of knowledge evaluation via argumentation impacts students' modeling. Currently, Professor Jimenez-Aleixandre and her team are focusing on students' engagement in the practices of knowledge production, evaluation and communication in laboratory contexts.

In her lecture for the Waterbury Series, she will introduce a theoretical approach about epistemic practices as social practices of science and then relate it to policy frames emphasizing scientific competencies. The approach will be illustrated with instances from two studies:

• Study 1: 10th Grade students' construction of external representations (expressed models) of trophic pyramids, and reflection about its meaning.
• Study 2: 9th Grade students' engagement in epistemic practices in a chemistry laboratory designed as an inquiry context, for instance generating data, comparing design plans or suggesting criteria for evaluation.

Marilar Jiménez Aleixandre is science education professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. A former high-school biology teacher, involved in innovation, she was part of the first batch of Spanish researchers completing doctoral dissertations in science education around 1990 (hers on conceptual change about evolution) and building a community around this field in Spain. She has also served as coordinator of science teacher development for Spain, with particular attention to programs to involve girls in science. Her ongoing research program explores the development of argumentation, evidence evaluation and critical thinking in the science classroom, through authentic problems and socio-scientific issues, as determinism. In the last years this program has evolved to the examination of students' enactment of epistemic practices and how to support them. She has also participated, as an argumentation expert, in several EU funded projects about IBST. She has been recipient of several Spanish awards, for her Ph.D. thesis and for her publications. She has authored about 45 books or book chapters on argumentation, environmental education and biology education. She has also published about 60 papers in refereed journals in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

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