Establishing the norms of the Vygotskian teaching in the science classroom

Abstract

This study aimed to exemplify an approach to in-class science inquiry teaching for effectivescience knowledge acquisition of students. The teaching tool (argument-based inquiry) is presentedwithin a specific instructional psychology context, coined as discursive psychology, grounded on theseminal works of Lev S. Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky, concept formation or learning science conceptsrequires the acquisition of a version of specific social languages or thinking and talking systems by whichscience ideas are generated and labelled. In the classroom, there are at least two social languages thatmay have differences and communalities. On one hand, students may bring a less formalised everydaysocial language into the classroom. On the other hand, science teachers have to share an alternative sociallanguage favouring and featuring a more formalised thinking and talking system attaching to canonicalscience knowledge. This study thus presented an expanded illustration how the science teacher uses anin-class science inquiry approach by reacting to the existences of the different or exclusively mutual sociallanguages or pedagogical accountabilities.