Surendran, Shone; (2023) Inferentialism and Science Education: Towards Meaningful Communication in Primary Science Classrooms. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Classroom talk is a central aspect of teaching and learning science. A significant challenge for primary teachers is to think and talk about science with pupils in ways that support meaning-making in science classrooms that develops meaningful understanding. An influential response to this challenge is Mortimer and Scott’s research framework. They analyse social interactions in science classrooms, identifying patterns that represent communicative and pedagogic practices that make classroom talk visible. Their representational approach is inspired by Anglo-American Vygotsky scholar James Wertsch and his sociocultural theory. However, the present thesis challenges sociocultural approaches, drawing on alternative but emerging Vygotsky scholarship. Of significant interest is Jan Derry’s philosophical perspective, which attends to Vygotsky’s Hegelian heritage, long-neglected by Anglo-American interpretations and (post-) Vygotskian research. Furthermore, her interpretation acknowledges developments in contemporary philosophy, namely ‘Inferentialism’ – a neo-Hegelian perspective on language, mind and epistemology. Inferentialism offers a more fine-grained analysis of thought and talk than representational approaches by privileging the role we humans, as rational, knowing agents, play in making judgments and being responsible for those judgments in discursive practices. Inferentialism offers rich theoretical resources in explaining meaningful communication that make these neglected human dimensions explicit. Adopting an inferentialist-Vygotskian lens to challenge Mortimer and Scott’s meaning-making research framework, the present study illustrates how an inferentialist epistemology critically informs theory and analysis and illuminates practical challenges in science classroom research. This first involves re-theorising concept-meaning and communication. Secondly, it involves a critical revision of analysing classroom discourse and, thirdly, a re-interpretation of meaning-making in classroom practice and pedagogic research. These critical insights systematically reorient our understanding of meaning-making, which remains under-theorised by sociocultural perspectives. This thesis aims to demonstrate how these inferentialist insights have implications for teachers in planning, teaching, and talking science in supporting children’s meaningful understanding of science concepts in primary classrooms.

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