#855: Reconstructing vs Constructing Explanations: Interview Interactions and Shifts in Epistemic Roles

Constructing explanations is one of the eight recommended science practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). To support participation in constructing explanations as a part of science learning, it is essential to move away from guiding students to targeted explanations and facilitate the development of explanations as plausible accounts of present or past observations. In this paper, we present an analysis of interaction dynamics, epistemic framing, and epistemic roles in an interview about natural selection to discuss how students’ shifts from reconstructing explanations to constructing explanations can be supported. This work has implications for supporting students in sensemaking during interviews and in classroom settings.