Reflecting on epistemic ideals and processes: Designing opportunities for teachers’ epistemic growth

This paper reports on a design experiment that explored designs for supporting teachers’ epistemic growth. Specifically, the study examined how reflective activities contribute to growth in understanding and caring about epistemic ideals and processes. The context of the study was an online course on digital information literacy. Teacher participants engaged in two types of reflective activities designed to promote epistemic growth: reflective experience tasks and reflective journals. Analysis of the journals revealed that participants experienced growth in understanding of epistemic ideals and processes, in pedagogical knowledge about teaching epistemic ideals and processes, and in appreciation of the importance and value of using and teaching epistemic ideals and processes. Participants described the course readings and the reflective experience tasks as the main contributors to growth. These activities jointly enabled them to significantly expand their understandings of epistemic ideals and processes in ways that were personally and professionally meaningful.