Group reflections
- What is knowledge? How do I know that I know?
- What is the difference between belief and knowledge?
- What does it mean to justify a belief?
- What constitutes knowledge?
- How is knowledge formed?
- What were the major developments in epistemology?
- What are Platonic heritages? What are the views of Fallibilists?
- What should the science educator take into account with regards to knowledge and belief?
- What do philosophical and scientific (educational psychology research) perspectives offer science educators with regards to epistemology?
- What knowledge is most worth?
- How does today’s reading of the article by Southerland, S. A., Sinatra, G. M., & Matthews, M. R. (2001). Belief, knowledge, and science education. Educational Psychology Review, 13(4), 325-351, influence your view of incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and/or teaching scientific theories?
- Reflect on how this reading relates to the required readings and discussions from our previous classes. What are the most important connections? What idea is emerging/developing continually?
What is the difference between belief and knowledge?
Perhaps, knowledge is something that is supported by a reasonable amount of evidence or support. This makes the information more generally accepted and communal in nature. Belief on the other hand, may be more individual and may not have a wide body of accepted evidence to support it. Education does have a role in discussing and problematizing both knowledge and belief with students. Teachers need to be mindful that they bring their own knowledge systems and beliefs into their classroom and that these may impact how and what they teach. Overal, educators should not concern themselves with changing their students’ beliefs, but provide them with tools for synthesizing, analyzing, and evaluating knowledge and beliefs.
Clara Liu & Aaron Zess
What is the difference between belief and knowledge?
The article discusses different viewpoints on the difference between belief and knowledge. One viewpoint describes that Plato proposed that to have knowledge it must meet three conditions of truth, belief and evidence. In order to meet the evidence condition, the individual must have good reasons to believe that the proposition is true. “Knowledge is justified true belief.” Another radical constructivist viewpoint argues that knowledge and beliefs are so closely related that they cannot be unambiguously separated. Knowledge is based on assumptions, so on some level a belief is tied in with this assumption. This viewpoint seems to argue that it is important to recognize that people do not hold beliefs for no reasons and they “represent what one has reasons to believe to be true”. Jessica Foley and Rosey Sharma
What knowledge is of most worth?
According to Spencer, the type of knowledge of most worth is the curriculum in general education that builds up stencils or lenses through which we construe reality. It is a knowledge that is needed to pursue the leading kinds of activity which constitute human life. Arranged into 5 groupings: indirect self-preservation, direct self-preservation, discipline of offspring, social and political relations and finally gratification and feelings.
We have learned that the knowledge lies between the two choices we have to offer towards teaching, making that choice between A and B of what you want to teach, it is that knowledge that you will pass on.
What are Platonic heritages? What are the views of Fallibilists?
Platonic heritages:
– originating from Plato’s beliefs
– Plato makes a distinction between belief and knowledge
– “knowledge is justified true belief” meaning beliefs are not scientifically proven but knowledge is scientifically proven
– Opinions (beliefs) can change but knowledge are facts, they cannot change.
– To be knowledge, 3 conditions need to be met: “truth, belief, knowledge”
– Core epistemological distinction between true belief and knowledge
Fallibilists:
– “fallibilism is an epistemology based idea that even though human
knowledge of the world is imperfect, useful comparisons can be made be
tween competing theories or descriptions, and one judged better than another”
– “certainty is not a condition of knowledge”
– beliefs for fallibilists are defined as a “subjective way of knowing”, “a personal truth not a truth about the world”
Amadeus Sandhu
Lyle Hopkins
Jasmin Gadey
Ines Palaz and Mark Surzyshyn
Q: What is knowledge, how do I know what I know?
Taking a belief, and transitioning that belief into what we philosophically categorize as knowledge requires 3 conditions: Belief, truth, and evidence. Knowledge can be analogized to the scientific method where belief constitutes the hypothesis, truth the experiment, and evidence the repeatability. Of the three, evidence is the most controversial, the most difficult to prove and repeat across different people or different perspectives. This is a more empirical view on knowledge, more quantitative and objective. Contrast this to the rationalist perspective where the individual adds a degree of subjectivity, introspection, and effectively a more qualitative view on knowledge. Popper’s three world’s adds another layer to the objective, scientific and empirical views by stating that third world scientific views exist independently, although one must not compartmentalize the worlds as they each add different properties to knowledge, and exist as a collective rather than 3 separate stages.
A common thread is the ideal that there can be no absolute truth, that first and second world subjectivity preclude this possibility, and objective truth is a contingency on which knowledge must be based.
What are Platonic heritages?
Platonic heritages are Plato’s belief that knowledge is constructed from justified true belief. Plato also believed that there was an objective truth that humans can obtain through a process of remembrance he called Anamnesis. For Plato true knowledge could be grasped by people
What are the views of Fallibilists?
Fallibilists believe, in contrast to Plato, that humans have an imperfect knowledge of the world and that we can never truly know something perfectly; However two ideas can be compared to one another and one found logically superior.
What does this Mean for our Pedagogy?
We shouldn’t rely on just one fact. It is important to show both sides and like the Fallibilists judge one idea against another and teach our students to do the same.
As a social studies teacher I think it is important to teach students the concept of History vs. the Past. The past is what actually happened, and like Plato’s Theory of Form it is perfect, but it is beyond human understanding. History is the tool that we use to try and understand the past and we can as historians take two different views of the past and compare them against each other to attempt to judge which is better
As an art teacher I think it is important to research and look at famous art historians and admire what types of art forms were created at the time. However with this knowledge and techniques that famous artists have developed back in the day we need to take this information and further greater education and newer techniques throughout the history of art.
Platonic heritage emphasizes the idea that epistemology is a terrain largely founded on notions set out by Plato 2500 years ago. Through the Socratic dialogues and other writings Plato has questioned and posited answers for several epistemological problems that are still relevant today.
Fallibists would argue that though human knowledge is imperfect, we can still glean insights into our condition through comparison of notions and delineation of ideas. Even if we cannot know everything, would say a fallibist, we can still juggle concepts within our sphere of understanding.
How is knowledge formed?
Traditionally, the knowledge taught in the classroom is based on tangible experiences and facts. There is a tendance to disconnect between scientific knowledge and personal knowledge, also called belief. As per Popper, there are three worlds :
1. Objects, processes and events
2. Subjective, individual mental operations
3. Sentific and other theories
These three worlds coexist based on standards that have been established and we decide to promote in our teaching. As teachers in an open access virtual world, our challenge is to develop a critical thinking in order to identify which ressources are truth worthy.
To conclude, the role of teacher is to enlight the students with a variety of sources in order to help them build their skills and believes.
What should the science educator take into account with regards to knowledge and belief?
-Common usage of the word belief and the importance of making sure that students do not misunderstand what we mean when we say scientists believe something to be true; instead possibly saying scientists accept something to be true to avoid misunderstandings
-Students enter the classroom with their own beliefs and it is not necessarily our job to challenge those beliefs. Rather, it is our job to present facts and explanations. The goal is to help students understand a theory or concept and why it is accepted by the scientific community, not to convince them that it is true
-It is important that students understand the difference between knowledge and belief. Knowledge must be supported by evidence and if the evidence changes, knowledge must evolve. Beliefs may be less responsive to evidence and students should be encouraged to evaluate the root of their beliefs and why they continue to believe them.
-When are appeals to authority appropriate? We want to encourage students to think critically and not just passively accept the information they are presented with but sometimes appeals to authority are necessary. Appealing to the authority of the scientific community seems to be necessary to establish certain kinds of knowledge. Beliefs can also stem from appeals to authority (parental authority, religious authority,…) but these source of authority might not be as trustworthy and thus can be used to establish beliefs but not knowledge.
Meghan, Melanie, Synthia, Joohee
How to justify belief:
In order to justify belief:
– evidence is required
– evidence provides the connection between belief and knowledge
– evidence can also show the difference between these two things
What was an advancement in epistemology:
A major breakthrough in epistemology that we noted from the text was the arrival of Karl Popper who led the advancement of epistemological perspective with the concept of objectivist account of knowledge, which by his definition did not need a “knowing subject”. What we understood from this is that for something to be truly objective (the first layer of knowing something) it could exist without someone thinking about it.
hat do philosophical and scientific (educational psychology research) perspectives offer science educators with regards to epistemology?