The purpose of this study was to increase the science education community’s understanding of the experiences and needs of girls who cross the traditional categorical boundaries of gender, race and socioeconomic status in a manner that has left their needs and experience largely invisible. A first of several in a series, this study sought to explore how African American girls from low SES communities position themselves in science learning. We followed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory strategy, in which two data collection phases, qualitative following the quantitative, were employed to investigate 89 African-American girls’ personal orientations towards science learning. By using quantitative data from the Modified Attitudes toward Science Inventory to organize students into attitude profiles and then sequentially integrating the profile scores with year-long interview data, we found that the girls’ orientations towards science were best described in terms of definitions of science, importance of science, experiences with science, and success in science. Therefore, our mixed method analysis provided four personality orientations which linked success in school and experiences with science to confidence and importance of science and definitions of science to value/desire. In our efforts to decrease the achievement gap, we concluded there should be more emphasis on conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills, while still being cognizant of the danger of losing the connection between science and society which so often plagues achievement-focused efforts. Our continued efforts with this group of girls will center on these instructional techniques with the goal of addressing the needs of all science learners.
ObjectiveTo review the research literature on epistemic cognition in medical education.MethodsWe conducted
database searches using keywords related to epistemic cognition and medical
education or practice. In duplicate, authors selected and reviewed empirical
studies with a central focus on epistemic cognition and participant samples
including medical students or physicians. Independent thematic analysis and
consensus procedures were used to identify major findings about epistemic
cognition and implications for research and medical education.
ResultsTwenty-seven
articles were selected. Themes from the findings of selected studies included
developmental frameworks of epistemic cognition revealing simple epistemological
positions of medical learners, increasing epistemological sophistication with
experience, relationships between epistemic cognition and context, patterns in
epistemic orientations to clinical practice, and reactions to ambiguity and
uncertainty. Many studies identified the need for new instruments and
methodologies to study epistemic cognition in medical education settings and
its relationship to clinical outcomes. Relationships between epistemological
beliefs and humanistic patient care and influences of medical education
practices were commonly cited implications for medical education.
ConclusionsEpistemic
cognition is conceptualized and operationalized in a variety of ways in the
medical research literature. Advancing theoretical frameworks and developing
new methodological approaches to examine epistemic cognition are important
areas for future research. Also, examination of the relationship between the
contexts of medical learning and practice and epistemic cognition has potential
for improving medical education. This
work also establishes a need for further investigation into the implications of
epistemic cognition for humanistic orientations and ultimately for patient
care.
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