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Exploring data driven learning design for negotiating troublesome concepts
Bethany Alden Rivers, The University of NorthamptonJohn Richardson, The Open University
Epistemic beliefs are our ideas about ‘knowledge and knowing’.
(Hofer, 2002, p. 3)
‘…how students themselves think about knowledge, learning and teaching is a primary factor influencing their experience of higher education itself.’
(Richardson, 2013, p. 192).
Universities need to care more about developing learners’ epistemologies.
(Lucas & Tan, 2013)
The problem…
Researchers need better ways of understanding epistemic beliefs (Schraw, et al., 2002).
‘Well-validated quantitative instruments that could be used to measure epistemological development in large samples of students are still lacking’ (Richardson, 2013, p. 201).
Knowing and Reasoning Inventory (KARI)
Measure of Epistemological Review (Baxter Magolda, 1992)
Argumentative Reasoning (Kuhn, 1992)
Reasoning Knowing+
Theoretical framework
Reasoning (Kuhn & Weinstock, 2002)
Knowing (Baxter Magolda, 1996)
Realist
Absolutist
Multiplist Transitional Knowing
Independent Knowing
Contextual Knowing
Absolute Knowing
Evaluativist
Creating the KARI• Converting qualitative interview protocol into
quantitative ‘statements’.
• 5-point Likert scale
• 3 demographic questions: age, gender, educational background
• 12 questions related to Reasoning
• 20 questions related to Knowing
Examples of KARI statements for Reasoning
• Experts know what causes prisoners to return to crime.
• It is possible to have more than one point of view as to what causes prisoners to return to crime.
• Compared to the average person, I know a lot about what causes prisoners to return to crime.
Examples of KARI statements for Knowing
• The goal of learning is to come up with my own perspective on things. (Role of the Learner)
• My classmates play a very important role in my own learning. (Role of Peers)
• Not everything my instructor says is true because we all have our own beliefs about things. (Nature of Knowledge)
Validating the KARI
• Phase 1: 77 students at the University of Northampton in May 2014
• Excellent inter-reliability among the Reasoning and among the Knowing questions
• Some interesting and statistically significant relationship between Reasoning, Knowing and Demographics
What can an epistemological profile allow us to do?
Our storyline
A learner’s conceptual development is ‘shrouded in distinctive, epistemic modes of reasoning and explanation’ (Baillie et al., 2013, p. 234).
A greater awareness of students’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge can illuminate students’ conceptual development (Buehl & Alexander, 2001).
Exploratory workshop • 10 members of staff at the University of Northampton
• Academic staff, learning technologists, learning designers, heads of learning and quality
• Theoretical frame: Threshold Concepts Framework (Meyer & Land, 2003)
How might KARI data be used by learning designers to promote university students’ conceptual
development?
Three activities
Identify a threshold concept
List three activities for grasping this threshold concept (see Baillie et al.’s 2014 Capability model)
Consider how a student’s KARI profile may influence the design of these activities
Theme 1: Threshold concept is a threshold concept.
My own approach to ‘learning design’ failed to account for ‘pre-liminal variation’.
For further reflection: how can those who influence course design become more familiar with conceptual development frames, such as the TCF?
Theme 2: Learning design is for the cohort, not for the individual.
“I would not create different scenarios. I'd use exactly the same activities for both students. The output and subsequent outcome of a single "learning situation" would be different, perhaps, but the scenario for learning would be the same.”
Theme 3: Visualisations of data need to be more meaningful.
“there is too much new information for some folk [sic] to take in”.
Next steps?
• Rework the KARI and continue to validate the instrument
• Try new visualisations—what does a strong profile look like compared to a developing or weak profile?
• Learn more about how such data may or may not be useful to staff or students
ReferencesBaxter Magolda, M. (1992) Knowing and Reasoning in College: Gender-Related Patterns in Students’ Intellectual Development, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Hofer, B. K. (2002) ‘Personal epistemology as a psychological and educational construct: an introduction’, in Hofer, B. K. and Pintrich, P. R. (eds.) Personal Epistemology: The Psychology of Beliefs about Knowledge and Knowing, Mahwah, NJ, Erlbaum.
Lucas, U. and Tan, P. L. (2013) ‘Developing a capacity to engage in critical reflection: students’ ‘ways of knowing’ within an undergraduate business and accounting programme’, Studies in Higher Education, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 104-123.
Kuhn, D. (1991) The Skills of Argument, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Richardson, J. T. E. (2013) Epistemological Development, Educational Research Review, vol. 9, pp. 191-206.
Schraw, G., Bendixen, L. D., & Dunkle, M. E. (2002). ‘Development and validation of the Epistemic Belief Inventory (EBI)’. In B. K. Hofer & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.),Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 261–275). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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