‘Mangling’ Science Instruction: Creating Resistances to Support the Development of Practices and Content Knowledge

Abstract

This paper explores Pickering's "mangle of practice" as a tool for designing classroom environments that integrate content knowledge and scientific practices. I describe the design of science instruction for an elementary school class, characterizing how it built from "The Mangle." I then identify two forms of activity that emerged, defining attributes and mapping between the experiment and target system. I show how each became a useful practice as material resistances in the system were made public and describe how each served as a site in which concepts and practices were evaluated in relation to each other. Finally, I comment on implications for the design of learning environments that make knowledge-building practices both accessible and relevant to students.