Knowledge, Language, Learning & Education: Some Useful Philosophy
Overview
- What is knowledge?
- Three views of the source of knowledge (epistemology)
- The origin and acquisition of human language (preview)
- Two views of education and learning
- The problem of fallibility
- A selectionist view of education and learning
- Why is this stuff is important?
- Outrageous ideas in science
- Format of this course
What is knowledge?
- Declarative knowledge
- state capitals
- definition of "phonology"
- Procedural knowledge
- how to ride a bicycle
- how to play the piano
- how to paint or draw
- how to teach
- how to speak a language
- Structural knowledge
- fit of an organism's structure to environment to get something
done
- Knowledge as fit
Three views of the source of knowledge (epistemology)
- Providence
- knowledge is provided from another source (e.g, God)
- e.g., Augustine, Paley
- Instruction
- knowledge acquisition as a "causal" process
- sensory information converted to knowledge
- e.g. Locke, Hume
- Selection
- knowledge as created via a process of trial and error
- variation and selection
- constructivism
- e.g., Darwin, Popper, Lorenz
Optional: Group discussion with markers
- each student talks without interruption from others
- student puts "marker" on desk (his or her pen,
keys, etc.) to hold the floor
- initial one-minute silent period for students to gather
thoughts and prepare notes if desired
- to be discussed
- Have you ever wondered before about the origin of knowledge?
- Which of the three views of the source of knowledge do
you accept (may be more than one)?
- Are there other views of the source of knowledge not included
in the three discussed?
The origin and acquisition of human language
(preview)
- Origin of language
- Providence
- human language created by God or some other supernatural
entity as a characteristic of human beings
- Instruction
- Human language evolved, caused by environmental and social
stimulation via the inheritance of acquired characeristics (Lamarckian
evolution)
- Selection
- human language evolved along with evolution of the human
species via Darwinian variation and selection
- human language as an adaptation for survival and reproduction
- Acquisition of language
- Providence
- human infants are born with innate knowledge of human language
(Chomsky; linguists)
- Instruction
- chldren learn human language via stimulus-response learinng
(Skinner; behaviorists)
- Selection
- children learn human language via a process of hypthesis
formation (variation) and testing (selection)
Two views of education and learning
- Providence
- education as a process of finding out what God or some other
supernatural source of knowledge is teling us
- Instruction
- education as a process of learning things via our senses
- from the physical environment
- from socal enviroment
- from teacher
- from books and other media
The problem of fallibility
- Can we ever know anything with complete certainty?
- How does science improve?
- Problem of affirming the antecedent
- if A then B
- B; therefore A (invalid: affirming the antecedent)
- if it rains (A), the grass will be wet (B)
- the grass it wet (B), therefore it must have rained (A) (invalid)
- Method of denying the antecedent
- if A then B
- not B; therefore not A (valid; denying the antecedent; modus
tollens)
- if it rains (A), the grass will be wet (B)
- the grass is not (B), therefore it did not rain (B)
- denying the antecedent (modus tollens)
- Science progresses not by proving laws, (affirming the antecedent)
but by disproving (denying the antecedent) and thereby making
them better
- example of boiling water under different conditions to see
if it always boils at 100 C
- no matter how many times you make water boil at 100 C, you
cannot prove that general law that it always boils at 100 C
- a single demonstration of water boiling at 98 C (as in Denver)
will refute the law
- Science gets better, but can never achieve certain truth
about anything.
- science improves by attempts to falsify what we think we
already know
- variation and selection of ideas
- How does personal knowledge improve?
- Our knowledge is therefore always tentative, always fallible
- Fallibility is problematic for providential and instructional
views of knowledge
Optional: Group discussion with markers
and passport
- as above with marker, but next student must paraphrase
preceding student's comments before proceding (obtain "passport")
- to be discussed
- What problem(s) does human fallibility pose for education?
- What are possible solutions?
A selectionist view of education and learning
- Perkinson's "Against Learning"
- fallibility
- danger of authoritarianism
- knowledge acquisition as a selectionist process
- constructivist perspective
- demo of finding quarter using "teacher" as "critic"
Optional: Groups discussion using value
line
- value line on agreement with Perkinson
- get statements of two extreme students
- count off from 1 to X, with X = total number of studestudents
divided by 4 (to get X groups of 4 students each of varying beliefs)
Why is this stuff is important?
- To better understand what language is and how it is used
- To better understand how knowledge is acquired and how to
facilitate its acquisition
- To improve your interactions with children
- To lead you to examine and improve your (unexamined) beliefs
about language and education
- To help in reforming education and improving your teaching
- If a selectionist view of knowledge is true, then the following
appear crucial for improving knowledge:
- Variation
- freedom and opportunity to express what is already known
(personal variation)
- exposure to varied ideas of others (social variation)
- Selection: a responsive environment in which better
ideas and skills can be selected with others eliminated
- Desire for improvement: willingness to examine critically
what one already knows and can do to improve what one knows and
can do
- What kind of educational environment is most conducive to
this?
- Lectures by an "expert" or authority with passive
listening?
- problem of loss of attention after 10-15 minutes
- Environment in which students are allowed to interact with
each other and teacher to try out, critique and select ideas?
- -> Show segment from "A Private Universe" on
eplaining the seasons
- "There is nothing as practical as a good theory."
- Outrageous ideas in science (accepted, "obvious"
knowledge is often discarded and replaced)
- Aristotle to Newton (inertial to thermodynamic theories)
- Newton to Einstein (thermodynamic to relativity theory)
- Ptolemy to Copernicus to Hubel (geocentric to heliocentric
to Big Bang/expansion)
- Creationism to Lamarck to Darwin
- catastrophism (e.g., Biblical flood) to continental drift
to plate tectonics (Alfred Lothar Wegener 1912)
- balance theory to modern theory re bilingualism
- from Skinner to Chomsky on language learnng & creativity
- nonstandard a/o unwritten languages as simple & empoverished
to all languages as complex & rich
- all development and knowledge growth is based on variation
& selection (Darwinian lesson)
- including language acquisition & the development of
new language skills
- behavior is the control of perception (Bernardian lesson)
- including all forms of language behavior (i.e., language
behavior is purposeful)
- Format of this course
- Lectures and reading to transmit unquestioned knowledge?
- Critical approach to improve knowldge? OR . . .
- constructive criticism (we criticize each other's
knowledge and beliefs, not the person)
- whole-class, small-group, private and Internet interactions
(WebCT)
- You will be the final judge of what you accept as "the
best knowledge"
Recapitulation
- What is knowledge?
- Three views of the source of knowledge (epistemology)
- The origin and acquisition of human language (preview)
- Two views of education and learning
- The problem of fallibility
- A selectionist view of education and learning
- Why is this stuff is important?
- Outrageous ideas in science
- Format of this course
Resource