THE EPISTEMIC INSIGHT INITIATIVE DR BERRY BILLINGSLEY Professor of Science Education www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
This ‘impossible triangle’ reminds me of a secondary school subject – it creates a contrived view of reality. www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
The view of reality in each lesson seemed to stand alone. You didn’t need any other discipline to help you to ask questions, test claims and establish knowledge. www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
EPISTEMIC INSIGHT ‘It’s not just cross- Knowledge about curricular’ – it means knowledge going beyond topic work – particularly knowledge to recognise the distinctive about disciplines and how questions, methods and they interact. norms of thought of different disciplines. www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
BIG QUESTIONS DAY WATCH CLIP » Thursday 16 May 2019 | 9.45am - 4pm Canterbury Christ Church University www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SAMPLE CROSS-DISCIPLINE QUESTION www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
PRIMARY PRE-SERVICE TEACHER – EXPLANATION OF EI www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SAMPLE WORKSHOPS: IS IT ALIVE? Compare What’s the the insights that difference science brings with between being alive the insights your own and appearing to subjective experience be alive? brings – and notice that you get a richer picture if you add What does these perspectives science say together? are the criteria for ‘being alive’? www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
ARE BUBBLES ALWAYS ROUND? www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
IS THIS A ‘PHOTO’ OF A BLACK HOLE? www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
CAN A ROBOT BE A GOOD FRIEND? www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
“BRAIN SCAN CAN DETECT WHETHER OR NOT YOU’RE IN LOVE” ...activity in regions of the brain According to a recent associated with reward, study published in the motivation, emotion, and journal Frontiers in Human social functioning are Neuroscience... highest when we are in love. www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
WHAT IS SCIENCE? WHAT IS A SCIENCE QUESTION? www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
What makes a question a science question … well it says it’s science in the timetable, it says science on the front of the book – and in secondary – it’s the name on the door and the job title of the teacher! www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
OBSERVE, OBSERVING, OBSERVATION, OBSERVABLE SCIENCE HISTORY KS1 20 0 KS2 31 0 KS3 7 0 KS4 7 0 www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SOME QUESTIONS ARE MORE AMENABLE TO SCIENCE THAN OTHERS • Why did the Titanic sink? • Would a robot ever be There are likely to be useful smaller given the status of an • What is the most interesting scientific questions we can explore electronic person? book ever written? • Why did the Romans come • Why did the great fire of to Britain? London spread so quickly? Partly amenable to science • Will we ever bring • Why do things fall to the back dinosaurs? ground when you let them go? Very amenable to science www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SAMPLE EI OBJECTIVES YEAR 5-6 Some methods are more scientific than others. YEAR 7-9 Some questions are more amenable to science than others. YEAR 10-11 (existing objective) Students should appreciate “the power and limitations of science”. www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
QUOTES AND STATS FROM OUR PREVIOUS RESEARCH IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. These findings motivated our new focus… www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
TEACHERS Mr A (science): Mr B (science): “we’ve had no cross- Mr D (RE): curricular sessions here “There is no relationship since I’ve been here – which between Religious Studies “I’m not terribly familiar is (pause) 19 years. [laughs] and science ... it is very with the science curriculum; I think they may be useful, hard for pupils to actually I don’t think they’re terribly so that at least we know see where those two can familiar with mine.” what [the] teacher work together.” there is teaching.” www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SEPARATE COMPARTMENTS “We’ve never done like science in religion ... we don’t do science and religion, we don’t bond them together, we have two different lessons.” (Chas, age 14) www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
OFF-TOPIC “We don’t ask science teachers questions any more at the moment, because we don’t think that they’d answer them. We wouldn’t have thought (pause) – oh they won’t answer that because it’s not on their topic.” (Chas, age 14) www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
SCIENCE TEACHERS AVOID QUESTIONS “They’ve never put religion and science together” and that “I think like the science teachers... do try and like avoid them [questions].” www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW IS THAT GOD DOESN’T EXIST 50 44.7 40 30 32.1 23.2 20 10 0 www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
www.epistemicinsight.com www.epistemicinsight.com LASAR@canterbury.ac.uk
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