Epistemic Cognition Interventions

• In Event: Translating Scholarship on Epistemic Cognition: Fostering Public Knowledge and Knowing

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to discuss three related issues that are salient in recent reviews of epistemic cognition interventions (Greene, Sandoval, & Bråten, in press). First, changes in epistemic cognition resulting from educational interventions have been distinguished not only from long-term progression through qualitatively different stages, as described in developmental models (e.g., Kuhn, 1991), but also from short-lived variations in epistemic cognition in response to specific situational demands, as described in the contextualist resource view (Hammer & Elby, 2002). The relationship between epistemic change brought about by specific educational interventions and these other forms of epistemic change is far from clarified, however. Second, Bendixen and Rule (2004) used “dissonance” to describe conditions that can stimulate epistemic change processes, and researchers discussing such interventions have typically highlighted the role of multiple conflicting perspectives in creating such dissonance. However, working with multiple conflicting perspectives in educational settings may require adaptive epistemic cognition at least as much as it promotes it (Bråten & Strømsø, 2006; Jacobson & Spiro, 1995), suggesting that using multiple conflicting perspectives as a pedagogical means to create epistemic change may not be equally beneficial for all learners. Third, epistemic belief questionnaires have been most commonly used to measure epistemic change. However, the form of epistemic cognition that is targeted by such measures may be more stable and global than the form of epistemic cognition that can be expected to change in many interventions.
To address these issues, I will draw on the extensive reviews of epistemic cognition interventions included in the forthcoming Handbook of Epistemic Cognition (Greene, Sandoval, & Bråten, in press), as well as on other theoretical and empirical work. In doing this, I will discuss potential interplays between individuals’ broad developmental stances and the effects of educational interventions for epistemic change, and the possibility that the effects of some brief interventions are better described as situational adaptations of existing epistemic resources to specific task demands than as changes in domain- or topic-specific epistemic cognition. In addition, I will discuss how epistemic cognition interventions emphasizing multiple conflicting perspectives may be adapted to the individual differences of learners, including their epistemic cognition, to ensure that not only the most resourceful are able to reap the potential benefits of such challenging learning environments. Finally, while acknowledging the need for more sensitive processing measures to capture change following epistemic interventions, I will argue that measures should be tailored to the type of change that is relevant to a particular instructional approach. This means that different types of measures, cognitive processing measures as well as belief questionnaires, may be relevant to epistemic intervention researchers.
In conclusion, researchers designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to promote adaptive epistemic cognition must reflect on the meaning of epistemic change, as well as on the conditions and measurement of change. Indeed, without addressing these issues, it is difficult to see how epistemic cognition researchers will be able to translate their work into forms of educational practice beneficial for all students, and convincingly demonstrate their effects.

Author

• Ivar Braten, University of Oslo