Epistemology in Education Optional Update 6

by Joanne Tyrrell

Epistemology, or the philosophical study of knowledge, in education shifted from philosophy to psychology in the 1950s. Piaget differentiated between the study of knowledge in its natural state, and knowledge as a process. He therefore believed the field of epistemology should be shifted from philosophy to psychology (Labbas 2013). The importance in this shift lies in analyzing students’ attitudes and approaches to knowledge. Is their attitude towards knowledge dualistic or relativistic?

It seems self-evident that acquiring knowledge is a personal process. Each of us is more or less receptive to knowledge based on a variety of factors including things such as experience with the topic, previous learning experiences, family values, socio-economic background, etc. Studies in epistemology in education have resulted in examining 3 broad categories of epistemology: from a developmental perspective, personal epistemology, and new concepts in personal epistemology. “The analysis of the readings shows that epistemology in education has implications in learning and teaching”( Labbas 2013).

The studies in educational epistemology centered around asking different groups about knowledge and learning. Early studies drew some conclusions that later were found not to hold true for all groups. For instance men and women may not answer the questions in the same way. These studies show that it is important to understand your students’ thought processes on learning. I can attest to this as a special education teacher in high school. Students’ previous learning experiences and ability to access and analyze the curriculum vary widely and the challenge for educators is to understand where each student is in order to build lessons that support each student. Teachers can understand the students’ attitude towards learning by finding out if they are dualistic or relativistic viewers of knowledge. As for teachers, they will be more engaged in reflective teaching, and teacher development” (Labbas 2013). The online learning ecologies do give us better tools and a space for doing this. The value in understanding this for teachers is the realization that learning is innately personal and developing relationships with your students is critical to a good learning environment.

References

Labbas, R. (2013). Epistemology in Education: Epistemological Development Trajectory. Journal of International Education and Leadership V3 n2 Sum. . http://www.jielusa.org.