Epistemic Stances in Action—Students’ Reasoning Process While Reflecting About Alternative Reaction Pathways in Organic Chemistry

Abstract

A focus in chemistry education research often lies on the “product” of a problem-solving process and less often on the “process”. A process-oriented lens on problem-solving allows us to elicit how a reasoning process occurs and what students experience during the reasoning process, such as an interplay of conceptual knowledge and students' expression of epistemic stances. By explicitly examining students' expression of epistemic stances, it is also possible to elicit how these stances influence how students make judgements on claims and how they justify them with evidence and reasoning. In this chapter, we use an in-depth process-oriented lens to analyze students' reasoning processes while reflecting about alternative reaction pathways in organic chemistry. Two cases of two representative students are used to illustrate (1) how epistemic stances and argument components are linked in students' reasoning process and (2) how epistemic stances are related to turning points in students' reasoning process. We also draw implications for teaching and research to support students in their reasoning process.