Scientific Literacy and Diverse Learners: Supporting the Acquisition of Disciplinary Ways of Knowing in Inclusion Classrooms

Dialogue-based learning is an inclusive pedagogy that leverages epistemological pluralism in the classroom to enhance cross-cultural education, encourage critical thinking across modes of inquiry, and promote novel contributions in applied ethics. The framework emerged from the Buddhism-science dialogue and our experiences teaching science courses for Tibetan Buddhists in India through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. Buddhism and science are two modes of inquiry that emphasize critical inquiry and empiricism, yet navigating complementarities and points of friction is challenging. Our proposed framework aims to raise awareness of onto-epistemological assumptions to convert them from obstacles into assets in dialogue. In drawing attention to epistemological orientations, our framework demonstrates that receptivity to other ways of knowing fosters clarity in one’s own views while creating space for new and enriching perspectives. In this article, we contextualize the Buddhism-science dialogue, explore the development of our dialogue-based learning framework, and demonstrate its application to a novel exchange about the COVID-19 pandemic. Broader aims of the framework include increasing scientific literacy and advancing transdisciplinary research.

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Attitudes towards Diverse Learners

Cases on Online Learning Communities and Beyond ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1936-4.ch006 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 113-133

Author(s):

Faith Maina ◽

Marcia M. Burrell

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Social Issues ◽

Veteran Teachers ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Diverse Learners ◽

Classroom Talk ◽

Hybrid Course ◽

Universal Language ◽

Mistaken Belief ◽

Diverse Student

University educators are often faced with the challenging task of equipping both pre-service and in-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively teach diverse students. It becomes even more problematic to teach mathematics when using a problem solving approach where mathematical ways of knowing are emphasized. These teachers tend to believe that mathematics is “just numbers,” “speaks a universal language,” is “culturally neutral” and has no relevance whatsoever with social issues that affect students. Coupled with this is the mistaken belief that “people know or don’t know math.” Pre/in service teachers, often meet the notion that math literacy can be achieved by all learners with skepticism and patronizing behaviors. However, given the space to step outside the classroom, talk with peers, and argue with veteran teachers, a shift in attitude about the potential for diverse student potential is self-evident. These preliminary findings were assembled when a hybrid course that enrolled eight pre/in-service teachers was developed.

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Creating a Canvas: Artistic Pedagogies in Academia

Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry ◽

10.18733/cpi29362 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kathleen C. Sitter

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Diverse Learners ◽

Creative Expression ◽

Special Issue ◽

Approach To Learning ◽

Creative Methods ◽

Artistic Representations ◽

The World ◽

Direct Encounter

This Special Issue Artistic Pedagogies in Academiabrings together a collection of articles, visual artefacts, and artistic representations. This Special Issue is inspired by Heron’s (1981) theory of extended epistemology. Extended epistemology refers to four interdependent ways of knowing and experiencing the world: experiential knowing (knowing through a direct encounter with a person, place or thing), presentational knowing (knowing through creative expression such as storytelling, pictures, and dance), propositional knowing (draws on concepts, ideas, and formal statements), and practical knowing (demonstrated in skills and competence; knowing in action) (Heron & Reason, 2008). These interdependent ways of knowing challenges the predominance of propositional knowing as the only approach to learning and provides a conceptual framework to integrate different and creative methods to engage diverse learners.

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Response-ability Revisited: Towards Re(con)figuring Scientific Literacy

Unsettling Responsibility in Science Education ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-61299-3_7 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 271-316

Author(s):

Marc Higgins

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Scientific Literacy ◽

Torres Strait Islander ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Cautionary Note ◽

Indigenous Science ◽

Cultural Interface ◽

Torres Strait ◽

To Come ◽

Proximal Relation

AbstractThe purpose of this chapter is to revisit and expand upon the concept of response-ability, shifting from the deconstructive homework of previous chapters to working towards a reconstructive response which renders science education more hospitable towards Indigenous science to-come. Braiding in the work of Torres Strait Islander scholar Martin Nakata’s theorizing of the cultural interface, which accounts for the ways in which hybridity between ways-of-knowing-in-being are unequal, problematic, and yet rife with possibility, this response takes the form of re(con)figuring scientific literacy. In four movements, this response: a) identifies scientific literacy as a central yet uncertain concept whose critical inhabitation is ripe for other meanings and enactments; b) explores Karen Barad’s subversion of scientific literacy as agential literacy as a productive location to rework the connectivity towards IWLN and TEK; c), utilizes agential literacy as proximal (yet differing) relation to bring in Gregory Cajete’s conception of Indigenous science as ecologies of relationships; and d) explores the generative points of resonance between agential literacy and ecologies of relationships. The chapter concludes with a cautionary note on points of convergence and points of divergence, wherein the proximal relation between agential literacy and ecologies of relationships is productively troubled.

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