The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching

Teaching in a Digital Age

I’ve now just published Chapter 2 of my open textbook, Teaching in a Digital Age.

Chapter 1 looks at the fundamental changes that are happening in our digital age, and the broad implications these changes have for teaching and learning.

The book examines the underlying principles that guide effective teaching in an age when everyone,and in particular the students we are teaching, are using technology.

The Preface spells out in more detail the reasons why I decided to publish the book, and the reasons for choosing an open format.

Chapter 2: The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching

This chapter discusses the relationship between our views on the nature of knowledge and the way we decide to teach. It’s about epistemology, but don’t be frightened off by the term: its basically about what makes us believe something is ‘true.’ This has fundamental implications for how we decide to teach. The chapter covers the following:

1. A dinner party scenario showing a clash of fundamental beliefs about the nature of knowledge between an engineer and a writer.

2. Art, theory, research and best practices in teaching: what guides (or should guide) the way we teach.

3. A brief introduction to epistemology and why it’s important. In particular it very briefly describes three currently popular epistemological positions in education, objectivism, constructivism and connectivism, and their implications for teaching and learning.

4. Academic knowledge. I make the distinction between academic knowledge and everyday knowledge, and then discuss whether new digital technologies change the nature of knowledge, ending with a justification for academic knowledge in a digital age, while also arguing that other forms of knowledge can be equally important, depending on the circumstances.

The key takeaways from the chapter are as follows:

1. Teaching is a highly complex occupation, which needs to adapt to a great deal of variety in context, subject matter and learners. It does not lend itself to broad generalizations. Nevertheless it is possible to provide guidelines or principles based on best practices, theory and research, that must then be adapted or modified to local conditions.

2. Our underlying beliefs and values, usually shared by other experts in a subject domain, shape our approach to teaching. These underlying beliefs and values are often implicit and are often not directly shared with our students, even though they are seen as essential components of becoming an ‘expert’ in a particular subject domain.

3. It is argued that academic knowledge is different from other forms of knowledge, and is even more relevant today in a digital age.

4. However, academic knowledge is not the only kind of knowledge that is important in today’s society, and as teachers we have to be aware of other forms of knowledge and their potential importance to our students, and make sure that we are providing the full range of contents and skills needed for students in a digital age.

Comments and criticisms are welcome, either as comments to this blog post, or as comments directly to the chapter (but see below).

Technical challenges with open publishing

As I reported in an earlier post, I’m trying to push the boundaries with open publishing. I want to make the book as interactive as possible but to date the open publishing technology ironically is very restraining. I’m getting tremendous help from the open textbook team at BCcampus, but the platform, PressBooks, is still very much designed in the mode of a traditional book.

So far, BCcampus has been able to add functions for learning objectives, tables, activities, and key takeaways, which have been very helpful. A moderated comment  function has just been added for the end of each chapter (I’m still trying to work out how to moderate this – I’m bloody useless with the technology!)

Here’s what I’m still trying for at the moment:

1. A comment facility that an author can add to each section, as well as the whole chapter.

2. To find a neat way for me as author to provide feedback on readers’ responses to the activities.

3. To find a good, robust, reliable, secure open source, free threaded discussion forum that will allow me to manage discussion forums on different topics covered by the book – or another way to integrate an asynchronous discussion function within the book. (Yes, I AM a social constructivist!)

Any suggestions welcome – we are actively exploring options at the moment. There are probably good solutions already out there. As I said, I’m not primarily a technologist but an educator, so help is definitely needed.

Next chapter: Theory and practice in teaching for a digital age: 

• Summary of current learning theories and teaching approaches
• Teaching and learning styles
• Deep vs surface learning.
• Learner-centered teaching, learner engagement, motivation.
• What we know about skills development
• Competency based learning
• Learning design models (ADDIE, communities of practice, flexible design models, personalized learning environments).
• Digital natives and digital literacy
• Summary of research on teaching.

I still have more work to do on this outline: suggestions welcome.

Your homework

In the meantime, please take a look at Chapter 2 and send me your comments. In particular:

1. Is it too theoretical or abstract?

2. Have I accurately represented objectivism, constructivism and connectivism?

3. Do you agree that academic knowledge is different from everyday knowledge, and that it is an important distinction?

4. Does the scenario work for you?

5. Would you recommend this chapter to your teaching colleagues as worthwhile reading?

Hey – it IS an open textbook, and there’s no more World Cup football after Sunday.