The importance of epistemic cognition in student-centred learning

Maclellan, Effie and Soden, R. (2004) The importance of epistemic cognition in student-centred learning. Instructional Science, 32 (3). pp. 253-268. ISSN 0020-4277

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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 & 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

    Author(s):Maclellan, Effie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5171-0921 and Soden, R.
    Item type:Article
    ID code:5509
    Keywords:Theory and practice of education, Higher Education, Education, Developmental and Educational Psychology
    Subjects:Education > Theory and practice of education
    Education > Theory and practice of education > Higher Education
    Department:Faculty of Education > Educational and Professional Studies
    Depositing user: Prof Effie Maclellan
    Date deposited:24 Feb 2008
    Last modified:21 Jan 2020 17:05
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/5509
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