Session Information
27 SES 16 A, Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education Part 1
Symposium to be continued in 27 SES 17 A
Contribution
This paper draws on findings from a case study of a German language lesson at a primary school in Frankfurt/Main, Germany carried out in March 2017 (Hudson et al., 2017). A central aim was to address the challenge of UN Sustainable Development Goal number 4 (United Nations, 2015), to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. With regard to ensuring equitable access to quality education, we argue that there is a need to consider the epistemic quality (Hudson, 2018) of what students come to know, make sense of and be able to do in school. This idea originates from a study on mathematical thinking in the primary school (Hudson, 2015) and arises from the analysis of the epistemic game that is referred by Loquet (2011, p287) as “part of the “language games” (Wittgenstein, 1997) specific to didactics systems”. A key question related to the school context, is whether the knowledge to be studied represents knowledge for acting and solving problems in the social and cultural contexts in which it was created and authentically used, in such a way that preserves its meaning. In order to study what connects or disconnects school practices and cultural practices, in terms of their "essential" meaning (Loquet, 2017), we distinguish between high and low epistemic quality across school contents. For example, high epistemic quality in mathematics can be characterized by creative reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving in contrast to low epistemic quality involving an over-emphasis on memorised reasoning, rule following and rote learning (Hudson, 2018). Data collection involved joint observation, video recording and individual notes based on observations. Key aspects of the lesson observations were shared orally immediately following the observation and written notes soon after. This process led to the identification of significant episodes in the lesson for deeper analysis through a process of progressive focussing as part of an “emergent method” approach. The study focuses on the epistemic quality of the language games during the teacher–student interaction of a particular lesson sequence involving a quiz. In order to describe and understand the epistemic quality involved in the quiz (Wegner, 2016), the quiz interactions are described and analysed through Bildungsgangforschung and -didaktik, i.e. research on learner development and educational experience (Wegner, 2016). Finally, the paper makes links with wider contemporary debates regarding “powerful knowledge” in schools (Young and Muller, 2010).
References
Hudson, B. (2017). Epistemic quality for inclusive and equitable mathematics education for all, WERA 2017 Focal Meeting/Hong Kong Education Research Association International Conference, The Education University of Hong Kong, 30 November – 2 December 2017. Hudson, B. (2015) Butterflies and Moths in the Amazon: Developing Mathematical Thinking through the Rainforest, Education and Didactique, Vol. 9, Issue 2, 119 – 133. http://educationdidactique.revues.org/2322 Loquet, M. (2011). Swimming babies – on joint didactic action in physical and sports activities. A case study in a non-schooling institution. In Hudson, B. & Meyer, M. A. (Eds.) Beyond fragmentation: Didactics, learning, and teaching (pp. 287–301). Opladen and Farmington Hills: Verlag Barbara Budrich. Loquet, M. (2017). La notion de parenté épistémique : une modélisation des savoirs entre la pratique des élèves et celle des savants, l’exemple de la danse au collège. Recherches en éducation, 29, 38-54. United Nations (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 Wegner, A. (2016). Zur Planung und Gestaltung des Unterrichts aus der Perspektive der Bildungsgangdidaktik. In Wegner, Anke (Ed.): Allgemeine didaktik: Praxis, positionen, perspektiven, (pp. 87–112). Opladen: Budrich. Wittgenstein, L. (1997). Philosophical Investigations = Philosophische Untersuchungen (G.E.M. Anscombe, Transl.), Oxford: Blackwell. (Original work published 1953).
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.