Knowledge from Perceived Indicators and Background Knowledge

2019 ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
Alan Millar
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Model ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Knowing That

The focus is on knowing that something is so by perceiving something that indicates that it is so. It is argued that some of our knowledge of this sort is more akin to perceptual knowledge than might at first appear. This is because recognition figures in two ways. We recognize the indicating phenomenon as being of a certain sort and we recognize the indicative significance of the indicator. The view is shown to be compatible with taking the knowledge in question to be evidence-based. An alternative model—the covering generalization model—is critically discussed. Since generalizations do figure in our thinking about indicators, their status is discussed. This leads into a more general discussion of standing factual knowledge that touches on public knowledge and picks up themes from Moore and Wittgenstein.

Men's perception and understanding of male-factor infertility in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. S8-S16
Author(s):  
Eleanor L Stevenson ◽  
Cheng Ching-Yu ◽  
Chang Chia-Hao ◽  
Kevin R McEleny
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Male Fertility ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Male Factor Infertility ◽  
Male Factor ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk

Male-factor infertility is a common but stigmatised issue, and men often do not receive the emotional support and the information they need. This study sought to understand awareness of male fertility issues compared to female fertility among the UK general male public, and also what were perceived as being the optimum methods for providing support for affected men, emotionally and through information. Men feel that male infertility is not discussed by the public as much as female infertility. Lifestyle issues that affect male fertility are not well understood, and men affected by infertility desire more support, including online, from health professionals and through peer support. Health professionals, including those in public health, could offer evidence-based programmes to reduce stigma and increase public knowledge about infertility, as well as offer emotional support to men with infertility problems.

scholarly journals Intelligibility in English as a lingua franca – The interpreters’ perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Karin Reithofer
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
Written Questions ◽  
Subordinate Role

AbstractThis article aims at examining the topic of ELF intelligibility from the interpreters’ perspective. Therefore, the focus is put on listener factors affecting intelligibility in settings typical for interpreting i.e. monologic settings. Data from various intelligibility studies are compared with results from a study that tested an ELF user’s intelligibility in a conference-like ELF setting and examined the influence of listener variables such as background knowledge, familiarity with ELF use or proficiency in English. In this study, an Italian speaker gave an impromptu speech in English to participants who subsequently were asked to answer written questions on the topic. The results showed that listeners with more experience in ELF settings reached the highest score in the test, while participants with specialist knowledge were unable to profit from it. The participants’ English language skills played a rather subordinate role. The findings of this study may prove useful for considerations in interpreter training and can contribute to the development of concrete, evidence-based training methods for interpreters in the interpreting sub-skill of comprehension.

Easy Knowledge, Circularity, and the Puzzle of Reliability Knowledge

Episteme ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-473
Author(s):  
Matthias Steup
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Cognitive Structure ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Animal Knowledge ◽  
Ernest Sosa ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Dependence ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Temporal Priority ◽  
Vicious Circularity

AbstractAccording to externalist reliabilism and dogmatic foundationalism, it's possible to gain knowledge through a perceptual experience without being in a position to know that the experience is reliable. As a result, both of these views face the problem of making knowledge of perceptual reliability too easy, for they permit deducing perceptual reliability from particular perceptual experience without already knowing that these experiences are trustworthy. Ernest Sosa advocates a two-stage solution to the problem. At the first stage, a rich body of perceptual animal knowledge is acquired. At the second stage, perceptual knowledge becomes reflective after deducing perceptual reliability from the initial body of perceptual animal knowledge. I defend the alternative approach of rejecting both externalist reliabilism and dogmatic foundationalism. According to the alternative view, perceptual knowledge and knowledge of perceptual reliability require each other. Such a cognitive structure seems viciously circular. I propose that the appearance of vicious circularity dissipates when the relationship in question is viewed, not as one of temporal priority, but instead as synchronic mutual dependence. At a given time, one cannot have perceptual knowledge without knowledge of perceptual reliability, and vice versa. Such mutual dependence, I argue, is benign.

scholarly journals One Size Does Not Fit All: Toward an Evidence-Based Framework for Determining Online Course Enrollment Sizes in Higher Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan H. Taft ◽  
Karen Kesten ◽  
Majeda M. El-Banna
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Specific Class ◽  
Higher Education Journals ◽  
Literature Class

Class enrollment sizes for online learning in higher education, a topic of persistent interest in the academic literature, impact student learning, pedagogical strategies, school finances, and faculty workload. Yet in the research literature class size is addressed with insufficient specificity to provide enrollment direction. Seeking guidelines for determining online class sizes, the authors conducted a qualitative research synthesis from 43 recent higher education journals, yielding 58 evidence-based articles. It is clear that no one size fits all. Findings reflect that large class sizes (≥ 40 students) are effective for foundational and factual knowledge acquisition requiring less individualized faculty-student interaction. Small class sizes (≤ 15 students) are indicated for courses intending to develop higher-order thinking, mastery of complex knowledge, and student skill development. Pedagogical intent should dictate class size. Using well-established learning theories, the authors describe current understandings of online enrollments and propose an analytical framework for pedagogically-driven numerically-specific class sizes.

scholarly journals Youth 2020: the position of young people in Slovenia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miran Lavrič
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Transition To Adulthood ◽  
National Study ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Peace Of Mind ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Life Circumstances ◽  
The Republic

After ten years, we have before us a new study on the position of young people in Slovenia, Mladina 2020 (Youth 2020). The national study, which concerns itself with the young generation, specifically 15- to 29-year olds, is of paramount importance for the client (Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth), as well as for young people and society as a whole. With the aid of the Mladina 2020 (Youth 2020) study and the recommendations that researchers offered as part of the final report, the Office’s goal is primarily to formulate evidence-based public policies that have an impact on young people’s lives. These should create better conditions for young people’s transition to adulthood and give mature generations peace of mind, knowing that the young generation is empowered and well prepared to face all life circumstances. However, is this true? So what are young people like at this moment in time?

How accurate are our assumptions about our students' background knowledge?

1999 ◽  
Vol 276 (6) ◽  
pp. S93 ◽  
Author(s):  
A A Rovick ◽  
J A Michael ◽  
H I Modell ◽  
D S Bruce ◽  
B Horwitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Respiratory Physiology ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Prerequisite Knowledge ◽  
Beginning Students

Teachers establish prerequisites that students must meet before they are permitted to enter their courses. It is expected that having these prerequisites will provide students with the knowledge and skills they will need to successfully learn the course content. Also, the material that the students are expected to have previously learned need not be included in a course. We wanted to determine how accurate instructors' understanding of their students background knowledge actually was. To do this, we wrote a set of multiple-choice questions that could be used to test students' knowledge of concepts deemed to be essential for learning respiratory physiology. Instructors then selected 10 of these questions to be used as a prerequisite knowledge test. The instructors also predicted the performance they expected from the students on each of the questions they had selected. The resulting tests were administered in the first week of each of seven courses. The results of this study demonstrate that instructors are poor judges of what beginning students know. Instructors tended to both underestimate and overestimate students' knowledge by large margins on individual questions. Although on the average they tended to underestimate students' factual knowledge, they overestimated the students' abilities to apply this knowledge. Hence, the validity of decisions that instructors make, predicated on the basis of their students having the prerequisite knowledge that they expect, is open to question.

scholarly journals The Crisis in Educational Research: A Pragmatic Approach

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Badley
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Or Methodology ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

This article first identifies and discusses four main causes of the crisis in educational research. These are summarized as false dualism, false primacy, false certainty and false expectations. False dualism is the apartheid that divides positivist and constructivist researchers with positivists believing in an objective reality and constructivists arguing that reality is a social construction. False primacy is the view that the positivist paradigm has come to dominate research to the detriment of more open, pluralistic and critically reflective approaches. False certainty is the argument that in an increasingly complex and uncertain world researchers have retreated to a reactionary position in order to shore up the dominant paradigm. False expectations is the case that governments, especially, are demanding more evidence-based research in order to provide urgent solutions to educational problems. The second part of the article shows how taking a pragmatic approach may help us resolve some of the difficulties identified. For example pragmatists would not privilege any one paradigm or methodology over another but would argue that both science and constructivism offer different sets of tools for investigating different aspects of the world. This also means that pragmatists see inquiry not as discovering what is really out there but as offering more or less useful descriptions to meet our particular needs and purposes. The third part of the article argues that pragmatism is not an alternative model of research but is more a working point of view or a perspective which is admittedly modest and, so pragmatists think, appropriately fuzzy. What a pragmatic approach to research actually leads to, through reflection, is a kind of useful if temporary equilibrium amongst the community of inquirers. Part of this approach is the rejection of the idea that scientific research can be used with certainty to specify educational practice. All it can provide is possible lines of action.

scholarly journals Co wynika z badań opartych na dowodach dla dalszego rozwoju nauk społecznych?

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanisław Kowalik
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Great Intensity ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Further Development

Global social order calls for more and more knowledge of applicable character. As a result, medicine developed certain procedures known as evidence-based research and evidence-based practice. Both procedures are promoted with great intensity in the domain of social sciences. The article demonstrates that such a type of modernisation may pose a threat to social sciences and their development. An alternative model of conducting research in the field of social sciences has been presented, which would guarantee an increase in the regulatory scientific knowledge in relation to the practice and which, at the same time, would protect social sciences against excessive political and economic interference in its further development.

Does Conjoint Analysis Mitigate Social Desirability Bias?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yusaku Horiuchi ◽  
Zachary Markovich ◽  
Teppei Yamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Social Desirability Bias ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
Randomized Design ◽  
Sensitive Attribute

Abstract How can we elicit honest responses in surveys? Conjoint analysis has become a popular tool to address social desirability bias (SDB), or systematic survey misreporting on sensitive topics. However, there has been no direct evidence showing its suitability for this purpose. We propose a novel experimental design to identify conjoint analysis’s ability to mitigate SDB. Specifically, we compare a standard, fully randomized conjoint design against a partially randomized design where only the sensitive attribute is varied between the two profiles in each task. We also include a control condition to remove confounding due to the increased attention to the varying attribute under the partially randomized design. We implement this empirical strategy in two studies on attitudes about environmental conservation and preferences about congressional candidates. In both studies, our estimates indicate that the fully randomized conjoint design could reduce SDB for the average marginal component effect (AMCE) of the sensitive attribute by about two-thirds of the AMCE itself. Although encouraging, we caution that our results are exploratory and exhibit some sensitivity to alternative model specifications, suggesting the need for additional confirmatory evidence based on the proposed design.

Comprehending Comprehension: Selected Possibilities for Clinical Practice Within a Multidimensional Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine P. Wallach ◽  
Alaine Ocampo
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Multidimensional Model ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Reading Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Intervention Session ◽  
And Task

Purpose In this discussion as part of a response to Catts and Kamhi's “Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Activity” (2017), the authors provide selected examples from 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade texts to demonstrate, in agreement with Catts and Kamhi, that reading comprehension is a multifaceted and complex ability. The authors were asked to provide readers with evidence-based practices that lend support to applications of a multidimensional model of comprehension. Method We present examples from the reading comprehension literature that support the notion that reading is a complex set of abilities that include a reader's ability, especially background knowledge; the type of text the reader is being asked to comprehend; and the task or technique used in assessment or intervention paradigms. An intervention session from 6th grade serves to demonstrate how background knowledge, a text's demands, and tasks may come together in the real world as clinicians and educators aim to help students comprehend complex material. Conclusions The authors agree with the conceptual framework proposed by Catts and Kamhi that clinicians and educators should consider the multidimensional nature of reading comprehension (an interaction of reader, text, and task) when creating assessment and intervention programs. The authors might depart slightly by considering, more closely, those reading comprehension strategies that might facilitate comprehension across texts and tasks with an understanding of students' individual needs at different points in time.

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