Instructional explanations are sometimes viewed as part of a nonconstructivist, solely teacher‐centered learning environment, leading to the perception that they are ineffective or inappropriate for teaching science. Consequently, teacher education programmes seldom focus on preparing teachers to explain scientific concepts effectively. Interestingly, the perception of a specific kind of instructional explanation in teaching has evolved in recent years: explanatory videos, in particular, are being viewed as promising digital tools for learning. This article asserts that instructional explanations constitute integral components within nearly all learning environments where communication about science takes place. It has two goals. Firstly, the article aims to develop a coherent, constructivist theory of explaining, including both teacher explanations and explanatory videos. This theory offers an inductive‐statistical explanation of the underlying mechanisms of communicative situations that involve experts and novices. Secondly, based on this constructivist perspective, the article distinguishes instructional explanations from scientific explanations and argumentation. It contends that (a) reducing instructional explanations solely to teacher‐centered, didactic teaching represents a misconception with potentially adverse effects and (b) it also is a misconception that instructional explanations, scientific explanations, and argumentation are (nearly) interchangeable. The paper argues that instructional explanations, including both teacher explanations and explanatory videos, are not only a potentially effective part of all kinds of science teaching but also a core practice of science teachers.

中文翻译：

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将教学解释视为科学教师核心实践的建构主义观点

教学解释有时被视为非建构主义、完全以教师为中心的学习环境的一部分，导致人们认为它们对于科学教学无效或不合适。因此，教师教育项目很少注重培养教师有效解释科学概念。有趣的是，近年来，对教学中特定类型的教学解释的看法已经发生了变化：特别是解释性视频被视为有前途的数字学习工具。本文断言，教学解释构成了几乎所有进行科学交流的学习环境中不可或缺的组成部分。它有两个目标。首先，本文旨在发展一种连贯的、建构主义的解释理论，包括教师解释和解释视频。该理论对涉及专家和新手的交流情境的基本机制提供了归纳统计解释。其次，基于这种建构主义视角，本文将教学性解释与科学性解释和论证区分开来。它认为（a）将教学解释简化为以教师为中心的说教式教学是一种误解，具有潜在的不利影响；（b）认为教学解释、科学解释和论证（几乎）可以互换也是一种误解。论文认为，教学讲解，包括教师讲解和讲解视频，不仅是各类科学教学的潜在有效组成部分，也是科学教师的核心实践。