Learning for knowledgeable action and innovation:

An epistemic fluency perspectiveThings and thoughts in progress, 6 Nov 2013

Lina Markauskaitė

Acknowledgements: Peter Goodyear, Agnieszka Bachfischer

Working presentation @CoCo

Three “orders” of learning

1st Order

Teaching as telling Teaching as facilitation

Learning by listening Learning by doing

Teaching as design

2nd Order

Learning by consci(enti)ous inhabiting

Teaching as co-configuration

3rd Order

So why?

Some trends and expectations from HE

1. Evidence generating practice2. Relational expertise 3. Second-hand knowledge4. Open innovation & co-

configuration

What does it mean for HE?

Knowledge Flexibility, Adaptability

?

Moving away from knowledge Dynamic & grounded

ways to think about knowledge

Epistemic fluency definedEpistemic fluency through epistemic games

• Epistemic games are patterns of inquiry that have characteristic forms, moves, goals and rules used by different epistemic communities

• Epistemic fluency is an ability “to use and recognise a relatively large number of epistemic games” (Morrison & Collins, 1996, 108)

But…

• “...decision making, problem solving, and like kinds of thinking do not have specifically epistemic goals -- goals of building knowledge and understanding” (Perkins, 1997, 55)

SidewaysForward

Up

Down

In

Epistemic fluency (re)defined

Epistemic fluency as a capacity…

1. To integrate different kinds of knowledge

2. To coordinate different ways of knowing

3. To assemble epistemic environment

4. To construct consci(enci)ous self

Learning as growing…

Theoretical perspective: Rethinking “deep learning”

Five approaches in psychology

1. Phenomenological2. Neuro-psychological3. Environmentalist4. Situated or sociocultural5. Mentalist

“Closing escape routes” for mind

“Opening escape routes” for mind

• Foundations: Pragmatic environmental existentialism

• Mental architecture: Grounded cognition

Some key concepts

Epistemic practice view

• A multimodal assemblage that characterises the “machinery” for knowledge construction

(Knorr-Cetina, 2007)

A multimodal view

Epistemic assemblage• “…the amalgam of places, bodies,

voices, skills, practices, technical devices, theories, social strategies and collective work, that together constitutes techno-scientific knowledge practices” (Turnbull, 2000, 44)

(Meta) cognitive

Social

Embodied & Embrained

MaterialEpistemic

Some key conceptsGrounded, modal view of conceptual knowledge

1. selected properties2. information about the

background settings3. possible actions4. perceptions of internal states:

affects, motivations, AND cognitive states and operations

Multimodal dynamic view of epistemic affordances

Disease Symptoms

TestsEvidenceTreatment

Aspirin Barsalou Zhang; Kirsh; Duguid; Knappett

Playing & weaving epistemic gamesEpistemic games ExamplesPropositional games A taxonomy of a disease, nursing “best

practice” guidelines Problem-solving games A lesson plan, a pharmacy layout

Meta- professional discourse Evaluation of a teaching resource, reflection

Trans-professional discourse Pharmacist–doctor’s conference

Public discourse Communication strategies for dispensing medications

“Weaving” games Administering reading proficiency test

Constructing epistemic environment

• Agi: Um two things you could put in the lesson plan. (…) we could do the nametags.

• (…)

Nat: Do you reckon ((seems confused about using nametags))?

• Agi: It means when you look at a student, you do – you can use their name.

• Nat: I felt so bad for that kid that I was like – I picked her out (…)

Tweaking physical environment to compensate for the lack of situated knowledge

[Epistemic environment]

[Epistemic environment] [Self-Emotions]

[Self-Cognition][Epistemic environment]

[Self-Emotions]

Constructing epistemic environment and conscious-self

Tweaking an epistemic form to scaffold ones knowledgeable decisions

Coordination: Linking mind, body, social and environment

• Agi: And so they’ve got four – I don’t know how many layers in a nappy. This is layer A, B, C, D. So then they test A, B, C, D, for … [4 seconds] I don’t know what it is, like hard err waterproof I think. Maybe we can divide them into groups. Maybe so, group 1 // test =

• (…)

• Jill: // And then we also need less stuff, we don’t need to like have… [4 seconds] and if there’s three [groups], are there three things that are being tested then one of us can be in each of these groups.

Coordinating and blending modalities: Designing a worksheet for a “scientific experiment”

[Material][Symbolic][Cognitive][Social][Cognitive]

[Material][Social][Cognitive][Self-Body][Social]

How do concepts become “actionable”?

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Grounding concepts: Integrating

Formal concepts

(Model view) Culture

Functional concepts

(Module view) Context

Situated concepts Experience

(Modal view )

A

E

B

B

C A

E B

C A

E B

CA

E B

C A

Based on Greeno, 2012; Barsalou, 2009; DiSessa, 2000

Integration: Constructing grounded concepts

S2: You could have a jigsaw kind of thing happening. (…) Where you take, so if you’ve got groups, you’ve got everyone in their individual groups and then you switch it around so that you share it with the other people that were not in your group.(….)

S2: It could get messy, I know, I know, but just as theoretical – it sounds like it could work, but I don’t know in practice.

(….)

S2: Yeah, but kids, I don’t think there’s gonna be that much discussion, I just think that’s gonna be more “show me your thing” and then ((shows writing gesture)) copy, copy, copy ((all laugh)). You know how it is.

(….)

S3: But maybe … [4 seconds] (…) ‘cause I remember with – when we did jigsaw – like the kids ‘d actually test, like we were tested like when we did it in a tutorial, we were tested on it, so it wasn’t just procrastination. They must have actually done something.

14

From pre-service teachers conversation: “Jigsaw”[Formal]

[Functional]

[Formal]

[Functional]

[Functional]

[Situated]

[Functional]

[Situated][Functional][Situated][Functional]

So…skill for actionable knowledge & knowledgeable action

Consci(enti)ous inhabiting of environment and self

1. Epistemic resourcefulness2. Conceptual resourcefulness3. Skill to assemble epistemic

environment4. Skill to coordinate environment

and self

Learning as growing…

Some lineages• Dewey; Pierce; Ryle; Deluge; Clark• Knorr-Cetina; Turnbull; Rheinberger; Star• Nersessian, Hutchins• Orlikowski; Leonardi; Nicolini• Latour; Ingold; Knappett; • Suchman; Greeno; Kirsh; Zhang, • Collins; Perkins, Ohlsson • Disessa; Elby, Hammer; Lobato; Schwartz• Barsalou; Damasio; Smith; E Gibson

SidewaysForward

Up

Down

In

Learners as designery minded second-order cyberneticians

• “I feel the need to add that design is a basic human activity and far more common than the search for abstract propositions. When someone arranges her furniture at home, she designs the arrangement. When someone makes a promise to someone else, a relationship is created. <…> Design is indispensably human, if not a basic human right. <…> Preventing people from designing their world, whether by requiring them to wear a uniform, putting them on an assembly line, or forcing them to merely look at the world, the prisoners in Plato’s Cave or television addicts, robs them of what is essentially human.”

Krippendorff, The cybernetics of design, 2007

Do students want to design their learning?

• I think it’s important to have clear instructions on what needs to be done on the task, but, sort of, left alone after that... I think it’s important to figure things out for yourself [P09].

• Personally I prefer it when you are given a goal and you are let loose and you can call on the instructor or the manager as a resource... [P09].

• ...and more tools are available the better the learning experience and best the collaboration because if somebody doesn’t like to use a particular thing, they can show their thinking in a different way in the same space [P06].

(Limbu, Markauskaite, under review)