Transepistemic Abduction and its Application to Reflective Writing Analytics

Transepistemic Abduction and its Application to

Reflective Writing AnalyticsPhD Final Seminar

Andrew Gibson

What is Reflective Writing Analytics and why should we care?

The Context

• Information explosion

• Changing work

• Transdisciplinarity

Sjoerd Los - Complexities.

Reflection• Mental processing (Moon,1999)

• Self referential bending back upon oneself (Ryan,2013; Archer,2010)

• A way of navigating, proceeding in the face of uncertainty (Reidsema et. al., 2010)

• Mezirow, Schön

Kat - Ponder

Reflection“...the act of constructing the stories is associated with mental and physical health improvement. A constructed story, then, is a type of knowledge that helps to organize the emotional effects of an experience as well as the experience itself.”

(Pennebaker and Seagal, 1999, p. 1249)

Kat - Ponder

Scalable Analysis

• Analysing

• Scaling

• Capturing

• Improving

Arentas - Big

What does reflective writing look like?

An ExampleI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm

trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes

on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though

and they are always so understanding and supportive.

Psychosocial Perspectives

• Psychological

• (James, Pennebaker)

• Sociological

• (Archer, Ryan)

• Psychosocial

hans van den berg - eye

Analysing Reflective WritingI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

Computational Perspective

• Computational

• (Blei, Manning)

Jim Cortez - Pondering

Analysing Reflective WritingI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

A Diversity of Perspectives

• Compounded by complexity

• e.g. personality, well-being, power structures, culture, computability, algorithmic complexity

• theories of reflection, of well-being, of learning

Andrew Sutherland - Perspective

Explanatory divergence

Epistemic Domains

• Knowledge resources to-hand

• Ways of making knowledge

• Psychosocial

• Computational

PsychosocialEpistemic Domain

Computational Epistemic Domain

Psychosocial Epistemic Domain

• Psychology & Sociology

• Complexity of views

• Well-being - Transition

• Learning - Metacognition PSYCHOSOCIALFEATURES

PSYCHOSOCIALMEANING



Computational Epistemic Domain• Representation and Modelling the

psychosocial - What does transition, metacognition look like?

• Quantification & Representation, Neutrality & Understanding, Abstraction & Idealisation, Predictive or Explanatory, Transparency & Uncertainty, Tractability & Compromise

COMPUTATIONALFEATURES

COMPUTATIONALMEANING



Transepistemic Work

• Working together

• Interrelating the psychosocial & the computational

PSYCHOSOCIALFEATURES

COMPUTATIONALFEATURES

PSYCHOSOCIALMEANING

COMPUTATIONALMEANING



Explanatory Divergence

• Meaning & Accuracy

• Explanatory divergence

• Making influence explicit

• Defending intuition

PSYCHOSOCIALEXPLANATIONS

COMPUTATIONALEXPLANATIONS

REFLECTIVE WRITING

Resilience & IdentityI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

Self? Time? Sentiment?I'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

Problem

How do we deal with this divergence?

How do we make progress?

How do we justify our choices?

Research QuestionWhen encountering apparently irreconcilable

psychosocial and computational explanations of reflective writing, on what basis can reconciliation be

facilitated to enable progress, and justified to maintain integrity with the psychosocial and

computational epistemic domains?

Contribution

Conceptual Model

Reflective Writing Analytics (RWA) Model R

W

I

S

A

P

Explanation Explanation

Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction

ComputationalEpistemic Domain

ConstructionExpression

Sense-makingTranslation

RepresentationalTranslation

Reflecting

Writing

Interpreting Analogising

Processing

Symbolising

Specialised Mode of Reasoning

Transepistemic Abduction

Reflective Text

Irreconcilable(irritant)

IgnoranceProblem

Transepistemic Progress

IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)

PsychosocialExplanation

ComputationalExplanation



Hypothesis

PsychosocialEpistemicResources

ComputationalEpistemicResources

Why do we need a conceptual model of Reflective Writing

Analytics?

Without a model…

• In the dark

• Ad hoc

Anjan Chatterjee - step into the dark

Choosing a path…

• from conflicting ideas

• when facing ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity

• that brings together disparate perspectives

Peat Bakke - Directions

The conceptual model of Reflective Writing Analytics

R

W

I

S

A

P


Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction



SemanticTranslation

SemioticTranslation

Reflecting

Writing


Processing

Symbolising

Reflective Writing Analytics (RWA) model

• Epistemic domains & Agents

• Aspects

• Epistemic boundary

• Domain aspects

• Translation aspects

R

W

I

S

A

P


Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction



SemanticTranslation

SemioticTranslation

Reflecting

Writing


Processing

Symbolising

RWA Psychosocial Aspects

• Interpreting-Construction-Reflecting

• Reflecting-Expression-Writing

• Writing-Explanation-Interpreting

��

��49

Domain Agent Aspect Nature Focus Artefact

Psychosocial Human

Interpreting-

Construction-Reflecting

Reflexive Making sense of context in relation to selfReflective Writing

(e.g. text)Reflecting-Expression-

Writing

Narrative Telling stories of self in context

Writing-Explanation-

Interpreting

Explanatory Explaining the writing in terms of self in context

Computational Machine

Symbolising-

Construction-Processing

Representative Modelling the writing with computational con-

structsAnalytics

(e.g. text, visuals)Processing-Expression-

Analogising

Interactive Providing a form of analysed data to allow for

meaning interaction with the psychosocial

Symbolising-Explanation-

Analogising

Explanatory Explaining the writing in terms of the computa-

tional models

Psychosocial !Computational

Human !Machine

Writing-Translation-

Symbolising

Semiotic Translating from psychosocial reflective writing

to computational models of that writing

Reflective Writing

Computational !Psychosocial

Machine !Human

Analogising-Translation-

Interpreting

Semantic Translating from computational analytics to psy-

chosocial interpretation of those analytics

Analytics

Table 1: An overview of the eight aspects in Reflective Writing Analytics, with their key attributes and their main focus in the model.

[March

28,2016at10:31

–classicthesis

FinalSeminar

Draft]

Psychosocial AspectsI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

R

W

I

S

A

P


Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction



SemanticTranslation

SemioticTranslation

Reflecting

Writing


Processing

Symbolising

RWA Computational Aspects

• Symbolising-Construction-Processing

• Processing-Expression-Analogising

• Symbolising-Explanation-Analogising

��

��49


Psychosocial Human

Interpreting-




Writing



Interpreting



Symbolising-



structsAnalytics


Analogising




Analogising


tional models


Human !Machine


Symbolising



Reflective Writing


Machine !Human


Interpreting



Analytics


[March

28,2016at10:31

–classicthesis

FinalSeminar

Draft]

Computational AspectsI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

R

W

I

S

A

P


Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction



SemanticTranslation

SemioticTranslation

Reflecting

Writing


Processing

Symbolising

RWA Transepistemic Aspects

• Writing-Translation-Symbolising

• Analogising-Translation-Interpreting

��

��49


Psychosocial Human

Interpreting-




Writing



Interpreting



Symbolising-



structsAnalytics


Analogising




Analogising


tional models


Human !Machine


Symbolising



Reflective Writing


Machine !Human


Interpreting



Analytics


[March

28,2016at10:31

–classicthesis

FinalSeminar

Draft]

Why do we need a specialised mode of reasoning?

The quandary, Intuition & Transepistemic Progress

• The quandary

• Adopting intuition

• Defending intuition

• Transepistemic Progress

Marina Montoya - Trying to touch that cloud

Transepistemic Abduction

Phenomenon

Hypothesis

Action

Target

Irritant

IgnoranceProblem

EpistemicResources

Abduction (Woods)• Irritant

• Limited epistemic resources

• Target

• Ignorance Problem

• Hypothesis

• Ignorance Preservation

Ignorance ProblemWith abduction, his ignorance remains, but he is not overcome by it. It is a response that offers the agent a reasoned basis for new action in the presence of that ignorance. No one should think that the goal of abduction is to keep oneself in ignorance. The goal is to make the best of the ignorance that one chances to be in.

(Woods, 2012, p. 153)

Reflective Text


IgnoranceProblem


IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)





Hypothesis



• Two epistemic domains

• Common phenomena

• Irreconcilable explanations - Irritant

• Ignorance problem

Transepistemic Abduction (TeA)

Reflective Text


IgnoranceProblem


IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)





Hypothesis



Transepistemic Abduction (TeA)

• Hypothesis - a relation between explanations

• Progress on transepistemic work - target

• Ignorance preservation

Reflective Text


IgnoranceProblem


IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)





Hypothesis



TeA

Key TeA Ingredients• Transepistemic Work

• Irreconcilable Explanations

• Reconciling Relation

• Ignorance Preservation

• Transepistemic Progress

Reflective Text


IgnoranceProblem


IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)





Hypothesis



How does Transepistemic Abduction apply to RWA?

TeA & RWAI'm home sick. I think that this year has really taken it out of me. Only 7 weeks to go after this - we finish a week early, which is very nice. I'm trying to prepare for writing reports again. This was pretty stressful last time so I want to get in and do them early. I'm still feeling negative a lot of the time. The environment I work in is very negative, not because of staff but the attitudes of students and some of the bullying that goes on is hard to take at times. I feel like I'm changing to have a more negative person, which I really don't like. It's hard not having my family with me. I am lucky I have made some really good friends here though and they are always so understanding and supportive.

What is the significance of both of these contributions?

Reflective Text


IgnoranceProblem


IgnoranceProblem

Relation(target)





Hypothesis



Significance

R

W

I

S

A

P


Epis

tem

ic B

ound

ary


Expression

Construction



SemanticTranslation

SemioticTranslation

Reflecting

Writing


Processing

Symbolising

• Accommodates diversity, dynamism, complexity

• Well-reasoned intuition

• Provides direction and basis for transepistemic progress

What remains to be done?

Future Work

• Generalising TeA

• Applying RWA

• Reconsidering Evaluation

Lets.book - Growth

In a world where we are increasingly expected to work in areas that draw on more than

the epistemic resources we have to hand, we are presented with the question:

How do we make progress?

I present this research as a step towards

an answer.

Questions

Education

Transepistemic Abduction and its Application to Reflective Writing Analytics