Epistemic insight: a systematic problem and an ecosystemic solution.

Prior research points to systemic challenges to the development of epistemic insight within the education system (Billingsley et al., 2018). Epistemic insight refers to ‘knowledge about knowledge’, and particularly knowledge about disciplines and how they interact. Gaining epistemic insight is about developing an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of individual disciplines. There is a basis to say that education is locked into particular ways of working which means that schools are failing to stimulate and promote epistemic insight across curriculum areas of study and in relation to Big Questions in particular. In our view, it requires a complex portfolio of activities and interactions at multiple points within the educational ecosystem in order to break a cycle that flows causally through systems at multiple different stages. Given the way that pressures on the development of epistemic insight are applied at each stage of the educational process, we argue for the necessity of interacting with multiple systems concurrently including at the level of teacher training. We hypothesise, trainee teachers find themselves with little knowledge of issues surrounding epistemic insight, its importance or how to effectively promote it. They then enter schools, which individual students pass through successively (from primary to secondary) facing distinctive pressures within each of these systems on the way. In this presentation we will report on a survey study conducted among more than 500 trainee teacher in two Higher Education institutions in order to assess trainee teachers’ level of epistemic insight. The baseline study indicated that there is a lack of epistemic insight among trainee teachers. Only about 10% of respondents in the study were familiar with the term ‘epistemology’ while more than 90% said that they are familiar with the term pedagogy. More than 80% of respondents stated that they would like to know more about how to teach Big Questions, which suggests that the barrier today is not a lack of interest. More data analyses on the assessment of the trainee teachers will be presented in the talk

Secondary school students' reasoning about science and personhood

Scientific advances, genetics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, present many challenges to religious and popular notions of personhood. This paper reports the first large-scale study on students' beliefs about the interactions between science and widely held beliefs about personhood. The paper presents findings from a questionnaire survey (  = 530) administered to English secondary school students (age 15-16) in which their beliefs and concepts regarding personhood and the position of science were investigated. The survey was motivated in part by an interview study and a previous, smaller survey which revealed that many students struggle to reconcile their beliefs with what they suppose science to say and also that some have reluctantly dismissed the soul as a 'nice story' which is incompatible with scientific facts. The results from this larger-scale survey indicate that a majority of the students believe in some form of soul. Even so, and regardless of whether or not they identified themselves as religious, most students expressed a belief that human persons cannot be fully explained scientifically, a position that some students perceived as a partial rejection of what it means to hold a scientific worldview. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

Acid fast staining in formalin-fixed tissue specimen of patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis

Diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is difficult owing to low number of bacilli in the specimens, lack of adequate sample and non-uniform distribution of bacteria in tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) staining in biopsy specimens with typical granulomatous inflammation in patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis and some related predictors.This study included 226 tissue biopsies of patients with EPTB showing typical granulomatous inflammation. Ziehl-Neelsen staining was performed for acid fast bacilli on paraffin embedded sections of tissue blocks. The most common site of involvement was pleura followed by vertebral and lymph nodes. Past history of pulmonary tuberculosis was positive in 46% of patients. The overall AFB positivity in specimens was 26.1%. The most positivity was in pleural TB (35.2%) and the least was in bone and joints TB (4.8%). There was significant association between site of involvement and AFB positivity (p=0.042). In multivariate logistic regression model, previous history of pulmonary tuberculosis was strongly associated with AFB positivity. Our study showed somewhat higher rate of smear positivity for acid fast bacilli in tissue specimen with typical pathology in some types of EPTB especially in patients with history of pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite low sensitivity, this method should be performed in patients suspected to EPTB especially in developing counties where new modality is not routinely available

Entrenched compartmentalisation and students’ abilities and levels of interest in science

This article explores the notion that asking and exploring so-called ‘big questions’ could potentially increase the diversity and number of students who aspire to work in science and science-related careers. The focus is the premise that girls are more interested than boys in the relationships between science and other disciplines. The article also examines the view that the practice of entrenched compartmentalisation is squeezing students’ curiosity and channelling their thinking away from creative activities such as identifying good questions to ask and devising ways to address them. Based on their findings, the authors suggest that entrenched compartmentalisation could be a barrier in schools to students’ intellectual progression and to students’, particularly girls’, interest in science

Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15-17 in England

The contributions of science and scientists to combatting Covid-19 have been at the forefront of media attention throughout 2020 and early 2021, exposing the public to the processes of science in an unprecedented manner. The pandemic has highlighted the necessity of scientists working collaboratively with other disciplines in informing thinking about a complex, evolving real-world problem. This draws attention to recent efforts, both in the UK and internationally, towards curriculum reform integrating epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge, including about what disciplines are and how they interact), with significant implications for the teaching of science in schools. We present findings from two exploratory workshops with 15-17-year-old students in England on the role of science during the pandemic. We found that the workshops provided space for students to begin to develop epistemic insight regarding how science informs decision-making in dialogue with other disciplines. We make recommendations proposing pedagogical approaches using live, complex, real-world problems to address issues around understandings of the nature of science, misinformation, trust and participation in science

Scientism, creationism or category error? A cross-age survey of secondary school students’ perceptions of the relationships between science and religion

We report on a survey of 1717 students at two different points of their secondary school education. This survey is designed to discover their reasoning about scientific and religious accounts of the origins of the universe and life. The study was motivated by a concern, based on previous research, that factors such as the compartmentalised curriculum may limit students’ progression in interdisciplinary reasoning and their capacities to appreciate why science and religion are not necessarily incompatible. To investigate these matters, we gathered data in seven secondary schools in England. The findings indicated that a significant proportion of students are working with a poor understanding of the limits of science and of the range of scholarly positions on the nature of religious explanation. The implications of the results for educational theory and practice are discussed

Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15–17 in England

The contributions of science and scientists to combatting Covid-19 have been at the forefront of media attention throughout 2020 and early 2021, exposing the public to the processes of science in an unprecedented manner. The pandemic has highlighted the necessity of scientists working collaboratively with other disciplines in informing thinking about a complex, evolving real-world problem. This draws attention to recent efforts, both in the UK and internationally, towards curriculum reform integrating epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge, including about what disciplines are and how they interact), with significant implications for the teaching of science in schools. We present findings from two exploratory workshops with 15–17-year-old students in England on the role of science during the pandemic. We found that the workshops provided space for students to begin to develop epistemic insight regarding how science informs decision-making in dialogue with other disciplines. We make recommendations proposing pedagogical approaches using live, complex, real-world problems to address issues around understandings of the nature of science, misinformation, trust and participation in science

Focus on form: A critical review

‘Focus on form’ (FonF) is a central construct in task-based language teaching. The term was first introduced by Michael Long to refer to an approach where learners’ attention is attracted to linguistic forms as they engage in the performance of tasks. It contrasts with a structure-based approach – ‘focus on forms’ (FonFs) – where specific linguistic forms are taught directly and explicitly. However, there is perhaps no construct in second language acquisition (SLA) that has proved so malleable and shifted in meaning so much. This review article begins by considering how Long’s original definition of it has stretched over time and then offers an updated definition of the construct based on the view that the term is best used to refer to specific kinds of ‘activities’ or ‘procedures’ rather than to an ‘approach’. A classification of different types of focus-on-form activities/procedures is then presented. There follows a discussion of focus on form from a psycholinguistic and discoursal perspective along with a review of research relevant to these perspectives. The article addresses a number of criticisms that have been levelled against focus on form, with special consideration paid to how focus on form can be utilized in instructional contexts where more traditional (i.e. FonFs) approaches have been the norm