Teaching practices for students’ involvement and epistemic practices in experimental work

Abstract

The practice of a teacher, in the context of experimental work, was studied in physical science classes. A qualitative longitudinal research methodology was followed. The analysis of the data was made taking into account the dimensions determined by the theoretical analysis. The changes in teacher mediation were enough to have consequences in the students’ epistemic practices and in their productive involvement. The results show that the characteristics of teacher mediation most relevant to promoting productive involvement of students are the authority given to students and the maintenance of the task as a challenge.