Serious games to teach and learn epistemic knowledge about the nature of science in primary education

Abstract

Epistemic knowledge (EK) or nature of science is acknowledged in science education as an essential component of scientific literacy needed for living in a sustainable world embedded by science-and-technology. Teaching and learning EK is difficult, due to its metacognitive nature, and especially in elementary education; this qualitative study aims to innovate in-service elementary teachers’ professional development on EK through the challenge of teaching EK to their students using serious cooperative games (cubes and dices), which ease the opportunity to learn some EK aspects (observations, justifications, argumentations, models and cooperative planning, communication and discussion) due to its accessible analogy of scientific practice. The results encompass the whole process: lesson plans, games, teaching resources, learning productions, teachers’ and students’ motivation and interest and teacher evaluation; they show success of teachers’ development and students’ positive learning and participation. Finally, results, limits and future implications for science education and teachers’ willingness to further develop their training are discussed.