Assessments as Sites for Teacher Sensemaking About Epistemic Learning Goals in Science

Recent science education reforms aim to broaden allowable ways of knowing and learning in science classes. Doing so requires that we attend to and work to shift messages about useful ways to know and learn (i.e., epistemological messages) embedded in course designs and enactments. Since high‐stakes assessments (i.e., tests and exams) are especially consequential sources of epistemological messages for students, useful alterations to course messaging landscapes should attend to alignment between assessment‐embedded messages and instructors' epistemic learning goals. Here, we consider how reflexive dialog around articulating and communicating epistemic learning goals might support such alignment. We analyzed data from eight semistructured interviews and other instances of reflexive dialog with a high school teacher partner, along with classroom artifacts, collected over a 2‐year period. Our analysis illustrates how iterative, scaffolded sensemaking mediated the refinement of this teacher's epistemic learning goals and co‐occurred with principled changes in how he assessed and supported students’ progress toward these goals. Specifically, engaging in reflexive dialog about epistemic learning goals—particularly in relation to summative assessments—created opportunities for the teacher to make sense of new curricular materials, his own values and goals for students, and contextual factors shaping his practice. Addressing epistemic incongruencies in this way narrowed the gap the teacher perceived between his values and his practice, and was accompanied by meaningful adaptations to both curriculum and instruction. This study underscores high‐stakes assessments as a critical context, warranting greater attention from both teachers and researchers.