Designing to develop disciplinary dispositions: modeling natural systems

This article addresses the problem of designing classroom settings where students have the opportunity to generate knowledge in a manner consistent with the epistemic foundations of a discipline. Because classroom settings are complex ecologies, successful design requires a working model of how components of the design-including tasks, inscriptions, material means, and forms of argument-function to promote epistemic development. These ideas are illustrated in an extended program of design research oriented toward introducing children to modeling, a form of knowing characteristic of the natural sciences. The example highlights the considerations that informed the guiding epistemology, the elements of design and their orchestration, and the forms of student learning that resulted.