Socialising Epistemic Cognition

Abstract

We draw on recent accounts of social epistemology to present a novel account of epistemic cognition that is 'socialised'. In developing this account we foreground the: normative and pragmatic nature of knowledge claims; functional role that 'to know' plays when agents say they 'know x'; the social context in which such claims occur at a macro level, including disciplinary and cultural context; and the communicative context in which such claims occur, the ways in which individuals and small groups express and construct (or co-construct) their knowledge claims. We frame prior research in terms of this new approach to provide an exemplification of its application. Practical implications for research and learning contexts are highlighted, suggesting a re-focussing of analysis on the collective level, and the ways knowledge-standards emerge from group-activity, as a communicative property of that activity.

A critical search for the learning object across school and out-of-school contexts: A case of entrepreneurship education

“…The research connecting learning with a socio-cognitive means of the out-ofschool context has expanded the theoretical view of learning toward different ways of thinking and heteroglossia in learning. Knowledge has been conceived as situated, practical, and collaboratively generated, allowing for children to bring their prior knowledge and knowledge structures to the classroom (e.g., Knight & Littleton, 2017;Rosenberg et al, 2006;Sawyer, 2014). Yet, with regard to cooperation between education and other activities, Säljö (2003) underlines that contextualizing knowledge, skills and attitudes for preparing students for the "real world" is not identical with performing a "real-world" action.…”

Integrating generative AI in knowledge building

“…By situating the usage of ChatGPT in knowledge building, some students believed ChatGPT outputs need to withstand scrutiny before they could be introduced to their discussion space. Knowledge building provides a meaningful context in which knowledge claims made by either ChatGPT or students themselves have social and communicative consequences (Knight & Littleton, 2017). It could be argued that while students' usages of ChatGPT are not necessarily novel, but the ways in which they incorporated ChatGPT to serve different cognitive functions in a social, discursive environment offers a refreshing take on GenAI's digital potential in education (Tlili et al, 2023).…”

Practical Epistemic Cognition in a Design Project—Engineering Students Developing Epistemic Fluency

“…In following Kvanvig's [37] call to "investigate successful cognition" the perspective of this work is explicitly pragmatic-"noting that knowledge is purposeful, it occurs in a natural environment, and serves a functional role in that environment [and] individuals cognize in social contexts, situated in a material world" [16]. That is, this paper does not seek to describe epistemological development in terms of underlying cognitive constructs such as beliefs, as in [38], [39], say, or in terms of stage theories such as [40]- [43].…”