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"In our Knowledge Society, the division of cognitive labor, the specialization of knowledge and the brisk growth of new information and communication technologies provide a complex challenge for those tasked with selecting what is worth teaching and how to do it. The ease of access to information due to advanced and user-friendly technologies often gives us the illusion to know more than we actually do. This “epistemic disease” is a danger to both democracy and public health. The educational system must therefore encourage good epistemic habits consistent with responsible citizenship. From a didactic perspective, this requires updating the curriculum in the light of the educational challenge of the 21st century: making students aware of what knowledge is and what knowing means by fostering their epistemic cognition. Since epistemic cognition is concerned with the acquisition of a habitus, that is, a durable disposition to act in a certain way under certain circumstances (second-level curriculum objective), curriculum updating should not be reduced to a mere quantitative increase in the knowledge to be taught. On the contrary, this revision should address, on a qualitative level, how the selected disciplinary content is didactically transpose. In this contribution, we intend to propose some procedural principles – conceived as pragmatic patterns of behavior – that can help teachers design instructional activities consistent with the goal of promoting students’ epistemic cognition. These procedural principles will be formulated based on a conception of discipline as a correlated system of epistemic products and expert practices of knowledge construction, validation, evaluation and justification."

Although the relationship between religion and science has long been the subject of discussion, investigations into the how and why of people's science-religion perspectives are rare. This study examined how epistemic and ontological cognition predict agreement with four science-religion perspectives: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. Participants (N = 3911) were Finnish, Danish, and Dutch adults who had answered an online study. Most people held views that were not well captured by the commonly used four categories. When more specific perspectives were examined, differences were found especially in supernatural beliefs, over-mentalizing, and justifications for religious arguments and scientific knowledge. Thinking styles and epistemic sophistication played only a minor role. The results suggest that non-scientists evaluate the relationship between religion and science more based on their ontological beliefs than their epistemic reflection.

Differentiated instruction is an inclusive approach that recognises and values diversities among students and adapts instruction to include every student. The concept of differentiation has been di...

Historical Encounters is an open access, interdisciplinaryjournal, dedicated to the empirical and theoretical study of: • historical consciousness; • historical cultures; and • history education. This special issue arose out of the symposium «Epistemic Cognition in History—insights into structure and practice»that was held at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New York, organized by the first and third guest editors. In addition, it was inspired by the work of the second guest editor, an associate editor of Historical Encounters, who recently published a handbook chapter about epistemic cognition and historical thinking (Mathis & Parkes, 2020). Adapting Hofer’s (2016) domain-general understanding, we use the phrase «epistemic cognition in history»to refer broadly to individuals’ beliefs, concepts, thinking, and reasoning about knowledge and knowing in the field of history. →for citations see bibliography in the document

• Issues perceived to be the most controversial were topics from the 20th century. • Teachers’ views on history are often not reflective; epistemic cognition is influenced by epistemic aims and is also topic specific. • It is important to concentrate on more complex epistemological interpretation schemata concerning history and learning and the connections between them in teacher training. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover topics in history education in Estonia that are perceived to be controversial, and to analyse how teachers’ epistemic cognition is reflected in the teaching of issues perceived to be controversial. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research based on group and individual interviews with 12 teachers, plus data from lesson observations among 10 participants. Findings: Issues perceived to be the most controversial are topics from the 20th century. The reflection of epistemic cognition in practice is a result of a complex interplay between knowledge and knowing related beliefs and processes. Research limitations: The small number of participants (12). Developed categories must be considered with caution as exploratory findings

Against the background of many studies focusing either on scientific reasoning or views on the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), the aim of this article is to present and empirically analyse a f...

A reformed view of science education positions argumentation as a central epistemic discourse practice in the science classroom, however, science education researchers have found that typical norms...

It is a widely held view that students’ epistemic beliefs influence the way they think and learn in a given context, however, in the science learning context, the relationship between sophisticated epistemic beliefs and success in scientific practice is sometimes ambiguous. Taking this inconsistency as a point of departure, we examined the relationship between students’ scientific epistemic beliefs (SEB), their epistemic practices, and their epistemic cognition in a computer simulation in classical mechanics. Tenth grade students’ manipulations of the simulation, spoken comments, and behavior were screen and video‐recorded and subsequently transcribed and coded. In addition, a stimulated recall interview was undertaken to access students’ thinking and reflections on their practice, in order to understand their practice and make inferences about their process of epistemic cognition. The paper reports on the detailed analysis of the data sets for three students of widely different SEB and performance levels. Comparing the SEB, problem solutions and epistemic practices of the three students has enabled us to examine the interplay between SEB, problem‐solving strategies (PS), conceptual understanding (CU), and metacognitive reflection (MCR), to see how these operate together to facilitate problem solutions. From the analysis, we can better understand how different students’ epistemic cognition is adaptive to the context. The findings have implications for teaching science and further research into epistemic cognition.

Current research in science education and the cognitive sciences has highlighted the importance of epistemic tools in scaffolding learners to think in ways consistent with scientific practices. How...

Epistemic beliefs about history can influence the way educators address this discipline with their students. This mixed-methods study establishes a comparison between three groups: secondary educat...

Reasoning about social inclusion is at the very heart of what it means for children to engage in active citizenship. In this paper, we focus on collaborative argumentation as a core approach to reasoning about social inclusion for active citizenship. We engaged a group of Australian primary school teachers in a social lab conversation, informed by reflexivity theory, to explore their ideas about, and experiences with, supporting children to reason about social inclusion. Teachers overwhelmingly identified a range of personal and cultural emergent conditions that enabled children’s reasoning for social inclusion. Across these enabling emergent properties, an evaluativist view of the nature of knowledge and ways of knowing emerged with respect to teaching social reasoning. These findings suggest that it may be important to pay attention to teachers’ reflexive deliberations about epistemic stances and their view of what enables and constrains such reasoning.

Over the last 50 years, the school subject of history has increasingly been described as a subject about interpretation and multi-perspectivism. Discussing the subject this way might require a specific view of the subject’s nature. This study investigates the genre position and epistemic cognition of Swedish upper secondary school history teachers. The study uses a questionnaire to which 375 teachers responded and the results show that in relation to the theoretical framework, more than one half of the teachers demonstrate epistemic inconsistency, putting teachers’ ability to voice their epistemic views and/or theoretical assumptions into question. The age of teachers is the only studied structural category that appear to impact the teachers’ views of the subject, with older teachers being more optimistic about a true correspondence between the past and history, than younger teachers. The study also shows that there is not a straightforward relationship between genre position and epistemic cognition.

Personal epistemological beliefs play a key role in teacher engagement with professional learning, so consideration of epistemic cognition is integral to the designing of sustainable professional learning. This qualitative study uses Chinn et al’s (2014) model of epistemic aims, epistemic ideals and reliable epistemic processes (the AIR model) as a theoretical scaffold from which to understand how teachers’ ontological and epistemic cognitions affect their engagement with a professional development focused on mathematics anxiety and metacognitive questioning. To cater for the complex situated nature of epistemic cognition, semi-structured interviews were conducted throughout the programme of teacher learning. Thematic analysis identified common influencers on teacher professional learning whilst highlighting conflicts between conceptions of the nature of mathematics and what they had been taught about mathematics teaching. Findings indicate that teachers engaged most fully with situated, practical learning experiences in collaborative learning spaces as they allowed for greater alignment between professional learning content and personal epistemic beliefs. Recommendations for future professional learning and adaptations to the study’s epistemic research methodology are provided in the light of the findings. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

In the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) there was a purposeful effort to not only include but prioritize science and engineering practices as part of the standards. Including the science and engineering practices in science curriculum and instruction is thought to help students understand how scientific knowledge develops and embed this knowledge in their worldview (3 Dimension 1: Scientific and Engineering Practices, 2012). Epistemic cognition, the concept of how one views knowledge and what beliefs they hold about knowledge, has been found to have significant influences on learning and academic success (Cano, 2005; Greene et al., 2018; Schommer, 1990)., This study utilized a self-report survey and presents the results of mixed-methods both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify and bring saliency to correlational relationships between recent U.S. high school graduates’ self-perceptions in their ability to perform the eight NGSS science practices and two dimensions of epistemic cognition (source and structure of knowledge) and between the dimensions across domain specificity. Undergraduate college students were recruited to complete a scenario-based survey intended to elicit both general and science-specific domain epistemic beliefs as well as rank their self-perception in their ability to perform the eight NGSS science and engineering practices (SEP)., Findings from this study indicate that these students’ self-perceptions in performing the SEP were correlated to a number of source and structure beliefs both in science-specific knowledge and knowledge generally or as an unspecified concept. Participants use multiple sources and justificatory standards when encountering science knowledge contexts. Engaging in the SEP may help students to develop sophisticated conceptualizations of science knowledge and components of both science-specific and general epistemic cognition.

The Internet has become an important literacy environment, even for children. Therefore, building the foundations for their critical engagement with online information should start when they first enter school. One way to start is to help children build an understanding about the complexities of the Internet environment. The present study aimed at increasing our knowledge about children’s understanding of the Internet as a technical and social environment. It also explored how children perceive the trustworthiness of online information. The participants included 30 children aged 7–9 years. The children were interviewed and the data was analysed using content analysis. We share the results from the following perspectives: 1) children’s understanding of the Internet as a complex environment; 2) children’s perceptions of the benefits and risks of the Internet; and 3) children’s perceptions of the trustworthiness of online information. The implications of developing instruction to educate critical readers are discussed.

The ideas students have about what causes math failure are known to impact their motivation. This dissertation throws light on how attributions of failure are negotiated during math tutoring at a non-profit STEM-based after-school program. The study employs methods of interaction analysis on a small number of cases to qualitatively document how tutor-student dyads co-construct stories about failure. The project addresses the theoretical relationship between students and tutors’ enacted responses to failure and their enacted knowledge-construction practices. I argue that responses to failure involve constructing obstacles, blaming causes of obstacles, and intervening to resolve obstacles, which take place as part of public practice. How students recruit sources of knowledge (perception, reasoning, introspection, memory, and testimony) in knowledge-construction practices, and how they tell stories about breakdowns in those practices are core concerns of the dissertation. By understanding the interactional mechanics of failure, the study can inform discourse-level interventions in the future.

In this longitudinal study, we explored children's reasoning about social inclusion/exclusion at Year 1 and Year 3 (n = 169 Year 1, n = 129 Year 3) of early primary education in Australia and how this reasoning related to changes in children's epistemic cognition. The data collection involved 30-minute interviews in which children were asked to engage in two tasks related to (1) epistemic cognition and (2) including an aggressive child in play. Findings showed that children were more likely to choose to include the aggressive child in Year 3 if they also expressed Subjectivist epistemic beliefs than if they expressed Objectivist beliefs. The children who expressed Subjectivist epistemic beliefs were more likely to justify their decision to include an aggressive child in a more nuanced and complex manner. We argue for a focus on epistemic reflexivity for reasoning about social inclusion as a way in which to provide new understandings about how broader contextual influences may mediate such reasoning.

This research is motivated by the importance of problem solving skill for students in 21st century, whereas students' skill in solving mathematics problems is various in accordance their cognitive levels. Students’ cognitive levels in solving problems include; cognition; metacognition; and epistemic cognition. Cognitive level affects individual in understanding problem and deciding the right strategy to solve it. The purpose of this study is to describe cognitive levels of low-ability students. This study uses qualitative methods with task-based interviews. The material is three-variable linear equation system. The research subjects are two low-ability students at ten grade of State Senior High School in Pati Regency. The results show that the two subjects have weaknesses at each level, for example the two subjects are able to work on the given problems, but both subjects are unable to define equations, inequality, similarity, and dissimilarity correctly in the initial type of cognition level.

There is growing international concern about the extent to which teachers are prepared to work with an increasingly diverse student (and community) population. To date, research into the relationship between teacher preparation and preparedness to teach diverse learners has not focused on teacher educators’ understandings about teaching to/about diversity. Such understandings can be informed by epistemic aspects of professional work. Epistemic cognitions (cognitions about knowledge and knowing) allow professionals to generate perspectives necessary to tackle new and old challenges. The social lab reported in this paper investigated 12 Australian teacher educators’ perspectives about teaching to/about diversity using the 3R-Epistemic Cognition (EC) framework. The findings showed that the 3R-EC framework could be useful for capturing epistemic reflexive dialogues about teaching to/about diversity, although some aspects of the framework were identified by the teacher educators as challenging. On the basis of these identified challenges, refinements concerning communication and use of the 3R-EC framework were identified. The feedback also led to some refinements of the social lab methodology for use in the larger national study.

This study investigated the effect of the metacognitive instruction in which students' epistemic cognitions were explicitly addressed, on tenth-grade students' conceptual understandings regarding force and motion. The participants of the study included 107 (49 female, 58 male) tenth-grade students at two public high schools. A quasi-experimental design was employed. Two intact classes of each school were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The Force and Motion Conceptual Tests I and II were administered to assess the students' conceptual understandings in force and motion. A survey was applied to probe the students' prior epistemic cognitions in physics. The results of the study revealed that the metacognitive instruction was more effective than the expository teaching in terms of promoting students' conceptual understandings. A statistically significant interaction between the treatment and the students' prior epistemic cognitions was also observed. The students with higher pre-epistemic cognitions got higher conceptual scores in the experimental group whereas the conceptual development of the control group students was independent of their pre-epistemic cognitions.

Along their path towards expertise, historians undergo conceptual changes. The purpose of this theoretical paper is to argue that conceptual change in history involves, first, a fundamental shift from an understanding of history as the past to an understanding of history as human production. And second, expert conceptual change involves understanding multiple approaches to the production of history. Each approach is associated with constraints on historical concepts and meta-concepts. We outline differences and similarities between these broad approaches through a framework that merges epistemic cognition and historical theory. Currently, there exists no singular conception of history to set as an unproblematic aim of epistemic education, and conceptual change must therefore embrace the aim of understanding of multiple conceptions.

University students’ epistemic beliefs may have practical consequences for studying and success in higher education. Such beliefs constitute epistemic theories that may empirically manifest themselves as epistemic profiles. This study examined university students’ epistemic profiles and their relations to conceptions of learning, age, gender, discipline, and academic achievement. The participants were 1515 students from five faculties who completed questionnaires about epistemic beliefs, including a subsample who also completed a questionnaire that included conceptions of learning. We measured epistemic beliefs: reflective learning, collaborative knowledge-building, valuing metacognition, certain knowledge, and practical value. First, we analyzed structural validity by using confirmatory factor analysis. Second, we conducted latent profile analysis that revealed three epistemic profiles: Pragmatic (49%), reflective-collaborative (26%) and fact-oriented (25%). Then, we compared the conceptions of learning across the profiles as well as demographic information, credits, and grades. The profiles’ conceptions of learning varied: The reflective-collaborative group scored high on conception of learning named “construction of knowledge.” Its members were more likely to be females, teachers, and mature students, and they had the highest academic achievement. The fact-oriented group (mostly engineering/science students) scored highest on “intake of knowledge.” The pragmatic group scored highest on “use of knowledge:” During the second year, their academic achievement improved. In sum, the epistemic profiles were closely related to conceptions of learning and also associated with academic achievement.