Abstract

Current research in science education and the cognitive sciences has highlighted the importance of epistemic tools in scaffolding learners to think in ways consistent with scientific practices. However, recent studies on epistemic tool have mainly focused on epistemic cognition, but not epistemic metacognition. Epistemic metacognition, which operates at a meta-level targeted at our own thought processes concerning the source, nature, and justification of knowledge, is a crucial component that promotes and regulates epistemic development. The aim of this paper is to illuminate how an epistemic tool mediates and supports epistemic cognition and epistemic metacognition, and the difference between them. Drawing data from a design research study that introduced a specific epistemic tool called PRO (premise-reasoning-outcome) to describe the structure of a scientific explanation, this paper illustrates how PRO was used to facilitate the development of both epistemic cognition and epistemic metacognition. Specifically, epistemic metacognition was developed by using PRO with multiple metacognitive instructional approaches to: (a) highlight the epistemic connections between the various components of an explanation, (b) prompt questions that regulate one’s own thought processes, and (c) organize navigational markers that regulate key ideas linking the causality of an explanation. The findings from this study provide insights and evidence for a crucial theoretical link that is currently missing in our understanding of epistemic tools, epistemic cognition, and epistemic metacognition.

摘要

当前在科学教育和认知科学方面的研究强调了认知工具在使学习者以与科学实践相一致的方式进行思考方面的​​重要性。但是，最近关于认知工具的研究主要集中在认知认知上，而不是认知元认知上。认知元认知在针对我们自己关于知识的来源，性质和合理性的思维过程的元层次上运作，是促进和调节认知发展的重要组成部分。本文的目的是阐明认知工具如何介导和支持认知认知和认知元认知，以及它们之间的区别。从一项设计研究的数据中汲取了数据，该研究引入了一种称为PRO（前提推理结果）的特定认知工具来描述科学解释的结构，本文说明了如何使用PRO来促进认知认知和认知元认知的发展。具体而言，认知元认知是通过使用PRO与多种元认知教学方法来开发的，以：（a）突出说明各个组成部分之间的认知联系；（b）提示问题，以调节自己的思维过程；以及（c）组织导航标记规范与解释因果关系相关的关键思想。这项研究的发现为我们对认知工具的理解中目前缺少的重要理论联系提供了见识和证据，