The relationship of (perceived) epistemic cognition to interaction with resources on the internet

Information seeking and processing are key literacy practices. However, they are activities that students, across a range of ages, struggle with. These information seeking processes can be viewed through the lens of epistemic cognition: beliefs regarding the source, justification, complexity, and certainty of knowledge. In the research reported in this article we build on established research in this area, which has typically used self-report psychometric and behavior data, and information seeking tasks involving closed-document sets. We take a novel approach in applying established self-report measures to a large-scale, naturalistic, study environment, pointing to the potential of analysis of dialogue, web-navigation – including sites visited – and other trace data, to support more traditional self-report mechanisms. Our analysis suggests that prior work demonstrating relationships between self-report indicators is not paralleled in investigation of the hypothesized relationships between self-report and trace-indicators. However, there are clear epistemic features of this trace data. The article thus demonstrates the potential of behavioral learning analytic data in understanding how epistemic cognition is brought to bear in rich information seeking and processing tasks

A virtue epistemology of the Internet: Search engines, intellectual virtues and education

This paper applies a virtue epistemology approach to using the Internet, as to improve our information-seeking behaviours. Virtue epistemology focusses on the cognitive character of agents and is less concerned with the nature of truth and epistemic justification as compared to traditional analytic epistemology. Due to this focus on cognitive character and agency, it is a fruitful but underexplored approach to using the Internet in an epistemically desirable way. Thus, the central question in this paper is: How to use the Internet in an epistemically virtuous way? Using the work of Jason Baehr, it starts by outlining nine intellectual or epistemic virtues: curiosity, intellectual autonomy, intellectual humility, attentiveness, intellectual carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open-mindedness, intellectual courage and intellectual tenacity. It then explores how we should deploy these virtues and avoid the corresponding vices when interacting with the Internet, particularly search engines. Whilst an epistemically virtuous use of the Internet will not guarantee that one will acquire true beliefs, understanding or even knowledge, it will strongly improve one’s information-seeking behaviours. The paper ends with arguing that teaching and assessing online intellectual virtues should be part of school and university curricula, perhaps embedded in critical thinking courses, or even better, as individual units

Developing Learning Analytics for Epistemic Commitments in a Collaborative Information Seeking Environment

Learning analytics sits at the confluence of learning, information, and computer sciences. Using a distinctive account of learning analytics as a form of assessment, I first argue for its potential in pedagogically motivated learning design, suggesting a particular construct – epistemic cognition in literacy contexts – to probe using learning analytics. I argue for a recasting of epistemic cognition as ‘epistemic commitments’ in collaborative information tasks drawing a novel alignment between information seeking and multiple document processing (MDP) models, with empirical and theoretical grounding given for a focus on collaboration and dialogue in such activities. Thus, epistemic commitments are seen in the ways students seek, select, and integrate claims from multiple sources, and the ways in which their collaborative dialogue is brought to bear in this activity. Accordingly, the empirical element of the thesis develops two pedagogically grounded literacy based tasks: a MDP task, in which pre-selected documents were provided to students; and a collaborative information seeking task (CIS), in which students could search the web. These tasks were deployed at scale (n > 500) and involved writing an evaluative review, followed by a pedagogically supported peer assessment task. Assessment outcomes were analysed in the context of a new epistemic commitments-oriented set of trace data, and psychometric data regarding the participants’ epistemic cognition. Demonstrating the value of the methodological and conceptual approach taken, qualitative analyses indicate clear epistemic activity, and stark differences in behaviour between groups, the complexity of which is challenging to model computationally. Despite this complexity, quantitative analyses indicate that up to 30% of variance in output scores can be modelled using behavioural indicators. The explanatory potential of behaviourally-oriented models of epistemic commitments grounded in tool-interaction and collaborative dialogue is demonstrated. The thesis provides an exemplification of theoretically positioned analytic development, drawing on interdisciplinary literatures in addressing complex learning contexts

Invisible Search and Online Search Engines

" Invisible Search and Online Search Engines considers the use of search engines in contemporary everyday life and the challenges this poses for media and information literacy. Looking for mediated information is mostly done online and arbitrated by the various tools and devices that people carry with them on a daily basis. Because of this, search engines have a significant impact on the structure of our lives, and personal and public memories. Haider and Sundin consider what this means for society, whilst also uniting research on information retrieval with research on how people actually look for and encounter information. Search engines are now one of society’s key infrastructures for knowing and becoming informed. While their use is dispersed across myriads of social practices, where they have acquired close to naturalised positions, they are commercially and technically centralised. Arguing that search, searching, and search engines have become so widely used that we have stopped noticing them, Haider and Sundin consider what it means to be so reliant on this all-encompassing and increasingly invisible information infrastructure. Invisible Search and Online Search Engines is the first book to approach search and search engines from a perspective that combines insights from the technical expertise of information science research with a social science and humanities approach. As such, the book should be essential reading for academics, researchers, and students working on and studying information science, library and information science (LIS), media studies, journalism, digital cultures, and educational sciences.

Proposing clinician competency guidelines for the inclusion of disability in the undergraduate medical curriculum of South Africa - an exploratory study

Introduction Persons with disability make up the largest minority group in the world yet there is a dearth of research both internationally and nationally on how disability is included in professional training curricula for medical doctors. Aim of the study The purpose of this study is to add to the body of knowledge that would facilitate the inclusion of disability in the undergraduate medical curriculum in South Africa. Methods This is a mixed method, sequential study – Phase one followed by Phase two. Phase one, data was collected - via focus groups and in-depth interviews - from Medical Doctors, Medical Students, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and Persons with disability. Phase two used a modified Delphi Method with an expert panel of disabled and abled Disability Studies Academics, Medical Educators, Disability Rights Activists and Medical Doctors. The experts were asked to rate – using a 5-point Likert Scale - each competency according to its importance and language clarity. They were also asked in open-ended questions, to make any suggestions relating to the language of each competency and whether any competencies could be combined. 2 Findings Four main themes emerged from Phase one data: Experience of disability, Attitudes towards disability, Knowledge about Disability and Life beyond the disability. Data from these four themes contributed to the generation of an initial competency set – 17 competencies and 13 sub-competencies. In Phase two the initial competency set was presented to an expert panel as part of a modified Delphi Method. In the first iteration consensus was regarding the importance of each competency. In the second iteration consensus was reached regarding the language of each competency and a final competency set – containing 13 competencies and 9 sub-competencies - was generated. Competencies and sub-competencies 1-6 are clustered as knowledge competencies, 7-10 as attitudes and 11-13 as skills. Conclusion This study sets an important precedent for the inclusion of the subject of disability in undergraduate medical curricula. It proposes an approach to teaching and learning about disability inclusion for medical students. The list of disability specific competencies set forth by this study are a steppingstone in the process of curriculum transformation. The use of this guideline to improve the understanding of disability, and as a catalyst for undergraduate medical curriculum review is recommended

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Towards searching as a learning process: A review of current perspectives and future directions

We critically review literature on the association between searching and learning and contribute to the formulation of a research agenda for searching as learning. The paper begins by reviewing current literature that tends to characterize search systems as tools for learning. We then present a perspective on searching as learning that focuses on the learning that occurs during the search pro-cess, as well as search outputs and learning outcomes. The concept of ‘comprehensive search’ is proposed to describe iterative, reflec-tive and integrative search sessions that facilitate critical and creative learning beyond receptive learning. We also discuss how search interaction data can provide a rich source of implicit and explicit features through which to assess search-related learning. In conclu-sion, we summarize opportunities and challenges for future research with respect to four agendas: developing a search system that supports sense-making and enhances learning; supporting effective user interaction for searching as learning; providing an inquiry-based literacy tool within a search system; and assessing learning from online searching behaviour.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145734/1/Rieh et al Towards searching as a learning process JIS2016.pd

Swaziland pre-service teachers’ understanding and enactment of inquiry-based-science teaching: a case of a university in Swaziland.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The current study adopted a case study design to understand the knowledge and skills related to inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) held by pre-service teachers at the conclusion of their three years training in science courses in an educational institution in Swaziland. Placed in the pragmatism paradigm, the study used a multi-methods approach. The purposively selected study sample consisted of 34 pre-service teachers at the end of their 3-year teacher preparation programme. In the first phase of the study, the researcher assessed the 34 preservice teachers’ understanding of IBST using a teaching scenario based questionnaire in combination with individual interviews with eight of the participants. Six participants from the sample of eight also volunteered for the second phase of the study, where their lesson plans, classroom observation recordings, and lesson interviews were used to gather evidence pertaining to their enactment of IBST during teaching practice. Data were analysed using a conceptual framework of IBST that outlines two dimensions: the cognitive and guidance dimensions. Findings from the first phase indicated that at the completion of the training programme preservice teachers held inadequate but varying conceptions of IBST. They either regarded IBST as engagement of learners in constructing knowledge about phenomena themselves based on evidence; or associated the pedagogy with different forms of learner engagement during the teaching process. Participants only identified prominent characteristics of the cognitive dimension of IBST, particularly those of the procedural domain. Concerning the guidance dimension, they connected IBST more with teacher directed activities. In their enactment of IBST, the six participants focused more on the conceptual domain while the epistemic domain was least represented. Concerning the guidance dimension of IBST, they mainly guided learners in formulating evidence-based conclusions. In the main, their enactment of IBST was shaped by their comprehension of the cognitive dimension of inquiry and their pedagogical content knowledge for facilitating inquiry-based learning. Extensive recommendations for teacher education and educational leadership are given. The effectiveness of the conceptual framework for identifying the pre-service teachers’ conceptions is discussed

United States certificate programs in technical communication : a feminist-sophistic investigation

Technical communication certificates are offered by many colleges and universities as an alternative to a full undergraduate or graduate degree in the field. Despite certificates’ increasing popularity in recent years, however, surprisingly little commentary exists about them within the scholarly literature. In this work, I describe a survey of certificate and baccalaureate programs that I performed in 2008 in order to develop basic, descriptive data on programs’ age, size, and graduation rates; departmental location; curricular requirements; online offerings; and instructor status and qualifications. In performing this research, I apply recent insights from neosophistic rhetorical theory and feminist critiques of science to both articulate, and model, a feminist-sophistic methodology. I also suggest in this work that technical communication certificates can be theorized as a particularly sophistic credential for a particularly sophistic field, and I discuss the implications of neosophistic theory for certificate program design and administration