The nature of science dimension in the teaching discourse. a case study

Abstract

Spoken language is the vehicle through which a great deal of teaching takes place, as well as the way in which students show the teacher a great deal of what they have learned. In this context, teaching is mostly a means of providing access to those specific ways of speaking. In particular, metadiscourse is a discursive resource used in discursive exchanges in science classrooms. Despite its importance, metadiscourse has been poorly studied in the science classrooms. One of the metadiscourse methods studied in classrooms is the one corresponding to epistemic markers. The purpose of this study is to analyze how a future Chemistry teacher uses metadiscourse to build scientific knowledge along with the students. A qualitative study of the future teacher’s speech was undertaken from discursive exchanges in a physical chemistry classroom. All classes were video and audio recorded for analysis purposes. From total of four classes, a number of extracts were selected from the third class. Based upon a content analysis, representative categories of epistemic markers in the teacher's verbal discourse were inferred. Discourse markers referred to the scientific law recognition as well as its structure and physicochemical properties thay either vary or remain constant during the phenomenon occurence were found. These markers show the importance of considering an explicit work with the epistemic dimension of the content in order to promote the construction of scientific explanations understanding in the science classroom. Additionally, this importance implies the relevance of engaging the future teachers in reflective practices that demonstrate the work with the nature of science from the discursive use of epistemological markers.