Epistemological correctness in English 101

He is the author of a comprehensive analysis of undergraduate curricula in Michigan's state university system, prepared for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Midland, Michigan, to which he serves as an advisor on higher education issues. Please address correspondence toAcademic Questions     

Epistemological development in higher education

Research has been carried out on students’ epistemological development in higher education for at least 50 years. Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic have converged on accounts that describe students’ epistemological development in terms of a sequence or hierarchy of qualitatively distinct stages or positions. The rich qualitative data obtained from longitudinal investigations do demonstrate intellectual changes, but whether the same scheme fits all students and whether the changes found are a specific result of exposure to higher education are open to debate. Well-validated quantitative instruments that could be used to measure epistemological development in large samples of students are still lacking. Unresolved issues include: whether students can adopt multiple epistemological positions; whether these are culturally and contextually specific; and whether they are mental entities, discursive practices or social constructions.     

Paulo Freire and political correctness

This paper addresses the issue of political correctness from a Freirean point of view. An identification of the range of areas to which the label 'political correctness' has been applied reveals a confusingly multifaceted term. The author concentrates on the key characteristics of intolerance, conformity, the impeding of questioning and criticism, the stifling of debate, and the denial of alternatives. Thus defined, 'political correctness' has no place in Freirean education.     

教育研究的认识论视野

人生活在印象、语言和知识之中，集体行动也这样建立在认识和理解的基础之上。正因为如此，管理首先就是以某种知识为基础而推行的对知识的管理。对行动逻辑的思考促使我们在考察教育行动时采取一种认识论视野，这一视野就其内核而言就是一种新的知识观，以及依此对知识和实践之间相互关系的重构。其中最为重要的是关注制度和知识之间的关联，从而摒弃知识分子所惯有的导师心态，走出理性自负和知识输入的泥沼，将教育实践中的知识增长托付给一种超主体的社会过程。     

Epistemological pluralism in research synthesis methods

The purpose of research synthesis is to produce new knowledge by making explicit connections and tensions between individual study reports that were not visible before. Every effort of synthesizing research is inevitably premised on certain epistemological assumptions. It is crucial that research synthesists reflect critically on how their epistemological positioning enables them to pursue certain purposes while preventing them from pursuing other purposes. The literature on research synthesis methods is dominated by publications premised on positivist assumptions. The rhetoric of systematic reviews, best-evidence synthesis and What Works Clearinghouse privileges syntheses with positivist orientations. Contesting the hegemony of positivist research syntheses, this paper makes a case for research syntheses that are informed by diverse epistemological orientations. It illuminates how research syntheses with distinct epistemological orientations can serve complementary, equally worthwhile, purposes.     

Political correctness and the neoconservative reaction

Political correctness is a social vision that includes feminism, multiculturalism, gay liberation, and affirmative action. Liberal ideals are at the heart of this social vision — and this explains its success. But despite its liberal inspiration, political correctness has a tendency to betray its liberal instincts in favour of the newfangled assumptions of postmodernism — and this explains its failure.     

Epistemological Foundations of School Science

Based on a synthesis of contributions from differentauthors, we present a theoreticalframework that provides some foundations for schoolscience, and we define someresearch problems. We start from what is already knownabout students' models andcognition in order to construct proposals of didacticalintervention. The cognitive modelof science, developed in the philosophy of science throughstudying scientists' activity,has allowed us to propose an analogous model for schoolscience in which experimentationand language play the key roles. We emphasise the relativeindependence of school scienceand scientists' science.     

认识论信念研究述评

认识论信念是学生对知识本质以及知识获得所持有的一种观念,至今这一概念尚无统一的界定.当前对认识论信念的研究主要有三种取向:认识论信念的发展研究,认识论信念的系统研究,认识论信念的元认知过程研究.目前关于认识论信念对学习影响的研究比较广泛.今后的研究将呈如下趋势:进一步拓宽认识论信念的研究范围,深化微观层面研究;在实证研究的基础上,加强对深层机制的探讨;注重认识论信念研究的应用价值.     

论学生学习观的结构

学生的学习观是学生个体对学习现象和经验的直观认识,对学习动机和行为具有重要作用。对于学生学习观的具体内涵和结构,研究者们分别侧重于学习观因素和层次两个角度加以阐述,但这些理论都是从对学生的调查结果中归纳出来的,而学生的学习观是一种内隐的直觉,学生未必能够明确而全面地描述出来。为了更好地揭示个体学习观的内涵,最好基于调查归纳研究的结果,参照学习理论家们对学习现象和经验的分析,同时从因素和层次两个方面来刻画学生个体的学习观。     

Comments on the Epistemological Shoehorn Debate

According to Allchin (2003), Lawson (2002) tried to shoehorn the history of scienceinto a preconceived philosophical category, the hypothetico-deductive method (HD).Lawson replied (2003) that discovery is based on HD because that's the way the brainworks, and accused Allchin of shoehorning science into another method, blind searchand induction. In agreement with Allchin, who actually wrote that HD is one of severalmethods used by scientists, I argue that HD by itself cannot explain how new theoriesand discoveries are accepted in science. Historical research has shown that other factorsare involved.     

Epistemological resources for thought experimentation in science learning

Thought Experiments (TEs) are reasoning processes that are based on 'results' of an experiment carried out in thought. What is the validity of an experiment- that has not been actually executed- for knowledge about the physical world? What are the features that make it distinctive and how do we integrate it into learning environments to support such thought processes? This study suggests that a thought experiment draws on three epistemological resources: conceptual-logical inferences, visual imagery and bodily-motor experience. We start by stating how students' TEs are related to recent research on learning science and then proceed to describe the nature of TEs. The central part of the paper deals with cognitive theories and empirical examples of visual imagery and bodily imagery. It also deals with how these enable implicit knowledge about the world to be retrieved. Students may have, but are not aware of, such knowledge for it is hidden when learning is only based on formal representations. We show that imagination is structured, goal-oriented, based on prior experiential imagery and internally coherent. Students can, for example, mentally rotate objects at constant velocity. Students can 'zoom in and out' to inspect imaginary situations, transfer objects, predict paths of imaginary moving objects and imagine the impact of forces on mechanical systems. We show that the TEs are powerful because of these capabilities. We further claim that these are not exploited by school learning environments and offer a first step towards understanding imagery in science learning.     

Epistemological beliefs and epistemic strategies in self-regulated learning

How do epistemological attitudes and beliefs influence learning from text? We conceptualize epistemological attitudes and beliefs as components of metacognitive knowledge. As such, they serve an important function in regulating the use of epistemic strategies such as knowledge-based validation of information and checking arguments for internal consistency. We report results from two studies that investigated the effects epistemological attitudes and beliefs on the use of epistemic strategies in academic learning and the motivational states that mediate these effects. Study 1 (N = 289) tested a mediation model with epistemological attitudes (separate vs. connected knowing) and textual characteristics as distal predictors, and learning goals (learning factual knowledge vs. developing an own standpoint) as mediator variables. Separate knowing had large indirect effects on the use of epistemic strategies via the goal to develop an own point of view. In addition, learners adapted their learning goals and epistemic strategies depending on objective characteristics and the perceived familiarity of the texts they read. In Study 2 (N = 124), epistemological beliefs concerning the uncertainty of knowledge increased the use of epistemic strategies only when extrinsic study motivation was low. A mediated moderation model established this effect to be mediated by specific epistemic curiosity. These results illuminate the mechanisms of how epistemological attitudes and beliefs affect self-regulated learning. In contrast to other types of learning strategies, the use of epistemic strategies seems to be strongly and consistently linked to epistemological attitudes and beliefs.     

Tapping Epistemological Resources for Learning Physics

Research on personal epistemologies has begun to consider ontology: Do naive epistemologies take the form of stable, unitary beliefs or of fine-grained, context-sensitive resources? Debates such as this regarding subtleties of cognitive theory, however, may be difficult to connect to everyday instructional practice. Our purpose in this article is to make that connection. We first review reasons for supporting the latter account, of naive epistemologies as made up of fine-grained, context-sensitive resources; as part of this argument we note that familiar strategies and curricula tacitly ascribe epistemological resources to students. We then present several strategies designed more explicitly to help students tap those resources for learning introductory physics. Finally, we reflect on this work as an example of interplay between 2 modes of inquiry into student thinking, that of instruction and that of formal research on learning.