Recent science reform efforts in science education have called for students appropriating authentic scientific practices that resemble the intellectual work of scientists. Among scientific practices, scientific modeling has been considered particularly important as a cornerstone of science as developing, testing, and revising models as embodiment of theory lies at the heart of scientific endeavor. Despite the increasing emphasis on scientific practices in general, and scientific modeling in specific in the field of science education, engaging classrooms in the practice can be especially challenging for teachers, even for those well-intended ones who are student-centered and inquiry-oriented in their pedagogy. While there is emerging research starting to focus on the interaction of teacher and students regarding the respective goals or expectations of certain scientific practices, there is little research about what aspects of teachers’ instructional practices can support students’ development in the practice of scientific modeling in a meaningful way.In this dissertation study, I seek to address this research gap. I draw on situated cognition as my theoretical lens and use Epistemologies-in-Practices as my analytical framework to investigate how teachers might support students’ meaningful engagement in modeling practices and what effects that support might have on students. In particular, I present a multi-case study of two upper-elementary teachers and one middle school teacher to examine what teaching practices teachers use to support modeling. I also investigate how that interaction might have impacted the nature of students’ engagement in modeling.As such, my overall research questions are:1. How do teachers engage students in modeling practice in a meaningful way?2. How do teachers’ instructional practices seem to influence students’ modeling practices?In all three research studies, I found that teachers’ instructional practices seemed to have influenced how students engaged in the practice of modeling accordingly. Further, it is the ways in which teachers emphasize the epistemic aspects of the practice that matter. The findings suggest that how teachers prioritize, unpack, contextualize, and scaffold the epistemic goals of modeling seem to contribute to students’ meaningful engagement in the modeling practices. Also, the findings also indicate that it is important for teachers to connect the epistemic aspect of the practice with other dimensions for the purpose of meaningful engagement in the practice. I conclude the dissertation with implications for teacher professional learning and the direction for future research.
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