Investigating characteristics of generative science learning through students’ perceptions about dialogic interaction and teachers’ epistemic growth

This dissertation aims to investigate the characteristics of generative science learning environments through students’ perceptual and teachers’ epistemic changes. For successful adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), it is important to have better understandings of how students develop resources through generative learning and how teachers create generative classrooms. This dissertation consists of two research studies. The first study exhibits how learning environments affect changes in students’ perceptions of dialogic interaction. To examine the changes, two dialogic interaction factors, experience with and value of dialogic interaction, were developed. The findings show that students, who agree that they experience dialogic interaction in generative classrooms, value learning environments more than those who did not have such experiences. The second study addresses how teachers who experienced generative learning environments through professional development workshops develop epistemic orientations for knowledge generation and teaching practices. Three teacher profiles were created based on the patterns of changes in teachers’ epistemic orientations and teaching practices. By analyzing the teacher profiles, the second study highlights that teachers need to experience sustained generative learning from the early period of their professional development workshops. Through the findings of the first and second studies, this dissertation provides meaningful insight into generative learning environments demonstrating that both students and teachers need generative learning experiences to develop practical resources for their future learning.