Dissertation Defense Announcement Ph.D. in Education Program: Danielle Murphy, “Elementary Students’ Engagement with Epistemic Criteria While Modeling”

The Next Generation Science Standards emphasize students’ engagement in authentic scientific practices which require epistemic thinking about knowledge construction and validation. In this dissertation I focus on the core practice of scientific modeling and the role of epistemic criteria in elementary students’ engagement with this practice. Epistemic criteria are the standards that scientific communities use to determine whether explanations are reliable, theories are coherent, and evidence is strong and relevant. While elementary students have used epistemic criteria, significant gaps remain in understanding their metacognitive engagement with these criteria during modeling practice.

This dissertation examines elementary students’ engagement with epistemic criteria across three interconnected dimensions: justificatory knowledge of criteria importance, descriptive knowledge and epistemic agency during criteria development and revision, and students’ application of criteria during modeling practice. In Study 1 I investigate fifth-grade students’ justificatory knowledge of epistemic criteria through clinical interviews following a model-based inquiry unit. Analysis reveals that students provide justifications for why criteria matter and employ these justifications to resolve disagreements about criteria importance with peers. In Study 2 I examine how teachers support students’ epistemic agency—ownership over knowledge construction—during the development and revision of a class criteria list. The data consists of observations of classroom discussions during a five-week modeling unit. Finally, in Study 3 I analyze how elementary students employ epistemic criteria, and reliable processes, to develop evidence-based models. The findings from all three studies demonstrate that elementary students exhibit metacognitive knowledge with epistemic criteria. Students articulate meaningful justifications for why criteria matter, exercise epistemic agency over criteria development, and employ reliable processes and criteria to establish evidential fit while modeling. These results have implications for elementary science education. They challenge traditional power dynamics in elementary science classrooms by revealing students’ competence as they take ownership over developing and using epistemic criteria while modeling.