How Do We Know What We Know? Teaching Epistemologies Across Four Core Content Areas

• In Event: Advances in Research on Learning Science Through Engaging in Practices

Abstract

Did dinosaurs really exist? Are fossils fake? Did I get sick because it was cold outside? These are real questions asked by students at Madrone High School1 in Northern California. In this project, we take a unique interdisciplinary approach to issues of epistemology across the four core content areas of math, science, English, and history. This investigation examined areas in which teachers' reported disconnection and continuity between students' patterns of reasoning and the target patterns of reasoning within the content area. We uncovered three dimensions of disconnection: (1) seeing is believing, (2) fakes, (3) correlation implies causation, and (4) theological issues and three areas of continuity: (1) using evidence, (2) the role of critique, and
(3) use of mathematical principles.

Author

• Catherine Lemmi, California State University - Chico