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Full-Text Articles in Education
World View, Metaphysics, And Epistemology, William W. Cobern
World View, Metaphysics, And Epistemology, William W. Cobern
Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project
It has been argued from world view theory that fundamental beliefs about the world exert a powerful influence on how sense is made of events in the world. However, the nature of that influence has remained enigmatic. Hannah Arendt's distinction between thinking and comprehension, and knowing and apprehension provides a clarification. Thinking is the epistemological path to conceptual comprehension. Knowing is the metaphysical path to apprehension - to the acceptance of a concept as true or valid. Comprehension does not necessitate apprehension. One may reject a fully understood concept. The recent discussion in science education about world view is essentially …
Contextual Constructivism: The Impact Of Culture On The Learning And Teaching Of Science, William W. Cobern
Contextual Constructivism: The Impact Of Culture On The Learning And Teaching Of Science, William W. Cobern
Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project
Though rooted in Piagetian research, constructivism1 is an avenue of research pertaining to teaching and learning that departed from the neo-Piagetian2 mainstream twenty years ago and has continued on a distinct path of development. The departure was evident by the late seventies, clearly marked by two publications, Novak (1977) and Driver & Easley (1978). For constructivists, learning is not knowledge written on, or transplanted to, a person's mind as if the mind were a blank slate waiting to be written on or an empty gallery waiting to be filled. Constructivists use the metaphor of construction because it aptly summarizes the …