The Importance of Epistemic Cognition in Student-Centred Learning

Authors: Maclellan E.¹; Soden R.²

Source: Instructional Science, Volume 32, Number 3, May 2004 , pp. 253-268(16)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

To infer the sophistication of epistemic thinking in a sample of undergraduate students, 25 participants completed a free-response task in which they were asked to give reasons for their agreement or disagreement with a small number of beliefs about the role of tutorials and of tutors in gaining knowledge. Responses were analysed according to King and Kitchener's (1994) stages of reasoning, revealing that the justifications offered were either at the stages of pre-reflective or quasi-reflective thinking with none exhibiting reflective thinking. The findings have two main pedagogical implications: first that good teaching be understood not as a set of performance skills which may only be opportunistically related to students' extant conceptualisations but as the locus through which students confront their own epistemic beliefs. A second implication is that to extend students' reasoning, teaching practices must focus explicitly on the difficult issue of what counts as evidence.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:TRUC.0000024213.03972.ce

Affiliations: 1: Department of Educational Studies, University of Strathclyde, (Jordanhill Campus) Southbrae Drive, Glasgow G13 1PP, U.K. (Author for correspondence: e.maclellan@strath.ac.uk), Email: e.maclellan@strath.ac.uk 2: Department of Educational Studies, University of Strathclyde, (Jordanhill Campus) Southbrae Drive, Glasgow G13 1PP

Publication date: 2004-05-01