It\u27s Fun, But Is It Science? Goals and Strategies in a Problem-Based Learning Course

All students at Hampshire College must complete a science requirement in which they demonstrate their understanding of how science is done, examine the work of science in larger contexts, and communicate their ideas effectively. Human Biology: Selected Topics in Medicine is one of 18-20 freshman seminars designed to move students toward completing this requirement. Students work in cooperative groups of 4-6 people to solve actual medical cases about which they receive information progressively. Students assign themselves homework tasks to bring information back for group deliberation. The goal is for case teams to work cooperatively to develop a differential diagnosis and recommend treatment. Students write detailed individual final case reports. Changes observed in student work over six years of developing this course include: increased motivation to pursue work in depth, more effective participation on case teams, increase in critical examination of evidence, and more fully developed arguments in final written reports. As part of a larger study of eighteen introductory science courses in two institutions, several types of pre- and post-course assessments were used to evaluate how teaching approaches might have influenced students’ attitudes about science, their ability to learn science, and their understanding of how scientific knowledge is developed [1]. Preliminary results from interviews and Likert-scale measures suggest improvements in the development of some students’ views of epistemology and in the importance of cooperative group work in facilitating that development

Argument as a Context to Understand Students\u27 Biology Epistemology

Science epistemology, what we know about science and how we know it, is an essential part of scientific literacy. Individuals’ science epistemology allows them to comprehend and ascertain the validity of scientific claims, helping biology majors to become better scientists and non-biology majors to influence how biology knowledge informs social policy. As biology education shifts toward active learning and practice-focused approaches, there will be increasing opportunities to discuss what we know in biology and how we know it. For example, Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) present students with the opportunity to engage in authentic practices that result in biological knowledge production. However, little is known about how students employ their epistemologies while participating in these new kinds of learning environments, specifically how students evaluate, build and justify knowledge. Recent work on epistemology has revealed that student epistemologies are not coherent structures that can be accessed and examined independent of context. Rather, these developing epistemologies comprise disparate cognitive resources that are activated in response to particular contexts. As such, a phenomenographic approach was employed to investigate the qualitatively different epistemic practices that undergraduate biology majors used in the context of building arguments in a biology CURE. In this study, twenty undergraduate students were interviewed about the arguments they constructed in a research proposal poster presentation. Analysis of participant poster presentations and interviews revealed that participants approached argument construction from local (classroom) and global (scientific) perspectives. Additionally, when engaging with scientific information, participants discussed the validity of the information (epistemic cognition) and the processes behind how the information was constructed (epistemic metacognition). Each participant constructed two research questions: one developed in collaboration with instructors, and another constructed solely by the participant. As participants moved between the context of the two research questions, their argument practices shifted between local and global perspectives as well as between epistemic cognition and metacognition. Three distinct practice composites emerged from analysis of participant argument construction across these contexts: Validating, Enculturing, and Transitioning. Validating practices were aimed at matching information and practices to what participants perceived as instructor expectations. Enculturing practices were built around information sharing within a knowledge culture. Transitioning practices were applied when participants perceived differences between instructor-sourced information and information gathered through literature searchers and experiments. As students moved from the periphery of the classroom culture toward the center of this community, they used Validating, Transitioning, and finally, Enculturing practices. These findings inform instructional practice by outlining contexts in which students discuss scientific knowledge production. Biology educators can create similar contexts to stimulate discussion about what biologists know and how they know it, thereby enhancing student understanding of biology epistemology. Furthermore, these findings support and extend previous research describing epistemology as context-dependent. During their interviews, students also discussed dissonance between their classroom perspectives and their perspectives on how professional science constructs knowledge. These reflections led to student descriptions of their beliefs about biological knowledge. These insights invite future research into how student biology epistemologies develop, and how the culture of the classroom contributes to the development of these epistemologies

PRADIGMA EPISTEMOLOGI PENDIDIKAN ISLAM (Kajian tentang Problematika dan Solusi Alternatif Epistemologi dalam Filsafat Pendidikan)

Abstract: The aim of this study is to discuss about the problem of epistemology of Islamic education that is not clear for still being considered following the epistemology of the West. The development of Islamic education and science still has an ambiguous attitude. Firstly, when looking at the findings of educational theories from the West and the East, it tends to be accepted without criticism by seeking arguments from the Quran and Hadith which sometimes tend to be irrelevant. Secondly, it is a very normative attitude in the face of the arguments of the Quran and Hadith instead of going through the stages of in-depth analysis. Both method and type of this study are commonly related to a study of literature, which displays the arguments of scientific reasoning that describe the results of literature review and researchers’ point of view concerning the epistemology of islamic education. Focus of the study is remain exploring and analyzing the problems and alternative solutions of epistemology in the Islamic education philosophy. This kind of study contains or delves into the idea of related propositions and should be supported by data or information obtained from literatures. With the foundation of qualitative and rationalistic philosophy. The results show that the epistemological approach requires a certain way or method, because it presents the process of knowledge of students rather than the result itself. This epistemological approach provides a complete understanding and skill. Those who know the process of any activity must know the outcome. Conversely, many know the outcome but do not know the process. Keywords: Epistemology, Islamic Education, problems and alternative solutions of epistemolog

The Phenomenal Conservative Approach to Religious Epistemology

In this chapter, we argue for a phenomenal conservative perspective on religious epistemology and attempt to answer some common criticisms of this perspective

Cognitive bias, scepticism and understanding

In recent work, Mark Alfano (2012; 2014) and Jennifer Saul (2013) have put forward a similar kind of provocative sceptical challenge. Both appeal to recent literature in empirical psychology to show that our judgments across a wide range of cases are riddled with unreliable cognitive heuristics and biases. Likewise, they both conclude that we know a lot less than we have hitherto supposed, at least on standard conceptions of what knowledge involves. It is argued that even if one grants the empirical claims that Saul and Alfano make, the sceptical conclusion that they canvass might not be as dramatic as it first appears. It is further argued, however, that one can reinstate a more dramatic sceptical conclusion by targeting their argument not at knowledge but rather at the distinct (and distinctively valuable) epistemic standing of understanding

Does epistemology matter for educational practice?

Lankshear, Peters & Knobel (2000) suggest that 'The digital age is throwing many of our educational practices and emphases and their underlying epistemological assumptions, beliefs, concepts and substantive theories into doubt'. In particular, because of new technology, educational philosophers must reconsider 'epistemological matters in relation to educational theory and practice' as a matter of 'very high priority'. Of course, philosophers need no excuse at all to reconsider anything; but since Lankshear, Peters & Knobel argue forcefully that 'key elements of the epistemological model that has underpinned education throughout the modern-industrial era' are brought into question by the fact of a 'digital age where more and more of our time, purposes and energies are invested in activities involving new communications and information technologies', it is perhaps worth asking whether the advent of new technology can, in itself, have profound implications for epistemology, and' more fundamentally – how exactly does epistemology 'underpin' or 'underlie' educational practice? In what follows, the main practical educational questions that I have chosen to consider with respect to issues of epistemology are: – What should be taught? – How should it be taught? – How can one tell what has been learned? This paper is in four parts. The first part outlines the case made by Lankshear, Peters & Knobel that traditional versions of epistemology must be replaced by a post-modern social epistemology because of changed social practices brought about by new technology; and that educational practice must consequently be reconsidered. The second part of the paper considers some of the claims made about the influences of technology on contemporary knowledge practices. The third part of the paper suggests that the argument offered by Lankshear, Peters & Knobel works as a whole if 'epistemology' is identified with 'accounts of knowledge practices'. The final part considers whether there may be more to epistemology than just social epistemology

Skepticism Motivated: On the Skeptical Import of Motivated Reasoning

Empirical work on motivated reasoning suggests that our judgments are influenced to a surprising extent by our wants, desires and preferences (Kahan 2016; Lord, Ross, and Lepper 1979; Molden and Higgins 2012; Taber and Lodge 2006). How should we evaluate the epistemic status of beliefs formed through motivated reasoning? For example, are such beliefs epistemically justified? Are they candidates for knowledge? In liberal democracies, these questions are increasingly controversial as well as politically timely (Beebe et al. 2018; Lynch forthcoming, 2018; Slothuus and de Vreese 2010). And yet, the epistemological significance of motivated reasoning has been almost entirely ignored by those working in mainstream epistemology. We aim to rectify this oversight. Using politically motivated reasoning as a case study, we show how motivated reasoning gives rise to three distinct kinds of skeptical challenges. We conclude by showing how the skeptical import of motivated reasoning has some important ramifications for how we should think about the demands of intellectual humility

Time-Slice Rationality and Self-Locating Belief

The epistemology of self-locating belief concerns itself with how rational agents ought to respond to certain kinds of indexical information. I argue that those who endorse the thesis of Time-Slice Rationality ought to endorse a particular view about the epistemology of self-locating belief, according to which ‘essentially indexical’ information is never evidentially relevant to non-indexical matters. I close by offering some independent motivations for endorsing Time-Slice Rationality in the context of the epistemology of self-locating belief

Thought experiments in current metaphilosophical debates

Although thought experiments were first discovered as a sui generis methodological tool by philosophers of science (most prominently by Ernst Mach), the tool can also be found – even more frequently – in contemporary philosophy. Thought experiments in philosophy and science have a lot in common. However, in this chapter we will concentrate on thought experiments in philosophy only. Their use has been the centre of attention of metaphilosophical discussion in the past decade, and this chapter will provide an overview of the results this discussion has achieved and point out which issues are still open

Knowing with Experts: Contextual Knowledge in and Around Science

The original concept of epistemic dependence suggests uncritical deference to expert opinions for non-experts. In the light of recent work in science studies, however, the actual situation of epistemic dependence is seen to involve the necessary and ubiquitous need for lay evaluations of scientific experts. As expert knowledge means restricted cognitive access to some epistemic domain, lay evaluations of expert knowledge are rational and informed only when the criteria used by non-experts when judging experts are different from the criteria used by experts when making their claims. The distinction between ‘substantial knowledge’ and ‘contextual knowledge’ allows for the laypeople to know with experts without having to know precisely what experts know. Such meta-expert evaluations are not specific to the public sphere outside science, nor are they limited internally to science, but they are present in a wide range of contexts in and around science. The paper legitimizes the concept of contextual knowledge by relating it to the relevant literature, and expounds the idea by identifying some elements of such a knowledge