Beyond epistemological deficits: Incorporating flexible
epistemological views into fine-grained cognitive dynamics
Ayush Gupta
University of Maryland, Physics Education Research Group
Thursday, January 28, 2010, 3:30 PM
Room 385 Serin (East)
Researchers have argued against deficit-based explanations
of students' troubles with mathematical sense-making, pointing
instead to factors such as epistemology: students' beliefs about the
nature of knowledge and learning can hinder them from activating and
integrating productive knowledge they have. But such explanations
run the risk of substituting an epistemological deficit for a
concepts/skills deficit. Our analysis of an undergraduate
engineering major avoids this "deficit trap" by incorporating
multiple, context-dependent epistemological stances into his
cognitive dynamics.
Last modified: Mon Jan 11 09:56:20 2010
Joel Shapiro