Generating a Personal Learning Epistemology
Instructions
Generating a Personal Learning Epistemology
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the “Personal Epistemology in Education” article in your text (p. 52), the Bendixen and Rule (2004), and Hofer (2006) articles in the Ashford University Library, and watch the What is Epistemology? Introduction to the Word and the Concept video required for this week.
As suggested in the required articles and video for this assignment, the definition of what a personal epistemology is has been debated. However, developing a personal learning epistemology is important because it is foundational to how we think. Without a multifaceted understanding of how we obtain knowledge, how we rely on our intelligence, and how we expand ideas in our minds, we have no intelligible path for our beliefs. A rigorous learning epistemology is essential to comprehensive reasoning and thinking.
Based on your current and newly developed knowledge as well as the required resources for this assignment, apply basic research methods to align the content of the information in the required course resources this week with your personally constructed learning epistemology. Apply skeptical inquiry to develop your personal epistemological beliefs through reflection on the questions below. Be aware that these questions are not the only considerations that might be included, and they should not be used verbatim; rather, they can serve as guides as you begin the process of creating your personal epistemology.
- What can we know?
- How can we know it?
- What do/should individuals need to learn, and why?
- What purpose(s) should education serve?
- How do you believe persons acquire knowledge best?
- What image of society and the kinds of adults that populate it seems to correspond with your vision of knowing/learning?
- What do you believe about the way students learn and why they may (or may not) want to learn?
- Why do we know some things but not others?
- How do we acquire knowledge?
- Is knowledge possible?
- Can knowledge be certain?
- How can we differentiate truth from falsehood?
- Why do we believe certain claims and not others?
- According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed. Do you agree or disagree?
Work Preview
The definition of personal epistemology has the subject of debate for scholars for centuries, with different schools of thought holding varying views of what constitutes personal epistemology. For instance, whereas some scholars and researchers define personal epistemology as the views on the nature of knowledge and knowledge, and not learning, others hold that personal epistemology entails people’s views about learning (Elby, 2009).
Word Count; 1300