Concord Consortium Blog

Dr. Gale Sinatra of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, gave a brown bag lunch at CC on the topic of using beliefs and dispositions to make judgements about scientific theories.

Summary

A Little Knowledge Can be a Dangerous Thing: Using Beliefs and Dispositions to Make Judgments about Scientific Theories

In our work on epistemological beliefs and acceptance of biological evolution (Sinatra, Southerland, McConaughy, Demastes, 2003; Sinatra & Southerland, 2002; Southerland, Sinatra, & Matthews, 2001) we have argued that learning about evolution involves epistemic conceptual change.  That is, conceptual change in the domain of science involves a change in students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing. In this presentation, I will present the results of three studies investigating the relationship between knowledge, epistemological beliefs, and acceptance of scientific explanations of phenomena.  Students with high and low levels of biology knowledge will be compared in terms of their acceptance of scientific theories and their epistemological beliefs and dispositions. The results of all three studies show that students' who view knowledge as changing and who hold a more open-minded disposition toward change, report greater acceptance of the scientific view of human evolution.  We posit that epistemic conceptual change is a result of increasing appreciation of the epistemic and ontological assumptions of the nature of science. I conclude with a description of a "nested" view of conceptual change as involving cognitive and affective change.  Finally, challenges for research and instruction are discussed.