LEC 05/14

EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE:  COGNITIVE DIMENSION OF EDUCATION.

A. Introduction

During the discussion of Criteria of education as propounded by R.S. Peters and the Dimensions of Education by Njoroge and Benaars we inferred that Education deals with knowledge acquisition and as such, it falls under Epistemology which is one of the branches of Philosophy proper. Epistemology deals with philosophical reflection of knowledge. It studies the nature, sources and validity of the knowledge.

B. Concerns of Epistemology

Epistemology occupies itself with, among others, the following questions:

(a)    What is knowledge?

(b)   What is the nature of knowledge?

(c)    What are the principles of knowledge?

(d)   What is truth?

(e)    How do we come to know?

(f)    How can we verify knowledge?

(g)   How do we know that we know?

(h)   What can we really know?

(a)   What is Knowledge?

The concept of verb ‘to know’ can be sub-divided into three aspects:

v  Knowing that – facts, information or details about something.

v  Knowing how – having the ability to demonstrate, possession of a skill or technique.

v  General familiarity – mental grasp of either information or skills without sufficient details.

(b)The Conditions of Knowledge

According to I. Scheffer (1965), there are three conditions of knowledge: 1. Belief Condition 2. Truth condition and 3. Justification

1 . Belief Condition

To believe is however not to know: it is just the beginning, although more is required than mere belief. Believing is more of a psychological state of mind and knowing is more than the strongest conviction. This is necessary for communication/teaching as it helps one to demonstrate an element of originality and subjective ownership of information.

          2.  Truth Condition

It refers to the actual truth of what one asserts. Knowing thus points to something independent of the individual/subjective  claiming to know – points to the truth of the matter. What one ‘believes’ may not be necessarily the truth as it is universally or objectively known. To know is thus more than believing: it implies that there is actually truth: a matter of true belief. To establish the truthfulness of a proposition/statement, it must be subjected to the following theories:

                    i.            Correspondence theories of truth: whatever is claimed to be true must correspond with reality i.e. must agree with what can be empirically verified, measured, observed. The major impediment to this theory is that our verification tools/observation are at times faulty. It is possible to perceive reality wrongly.

                  ii.            Coherence theory of truth: whatever is claimed must cohere/agree with what is already accepted/admitted as truth. Any new knowledge is validated on the basis of the existing knowledge. However, this theory has limitations. Whatever is known may be untrue or false, one could possibly be mistaken e.g. the Galileo’s case with the Roman Catholic Church.

                iii.            Pragmatic theory: whatever is of utility/value works  and is useful or beneficial or true

                iv.            Semantic Theory: Truth is based on language use and manipulation

      3          Justification/grounds condition

The claimant must be able to cite evidence and evidence of the right kind to support/justify his claim. Absolute certainty is difficult to attain because human knowledge tends to be limited. Certainty thus remains uncertain or hypothetical. One must always be prepared to review/reconsider their knowledge in the light of new evidence though adequacy of evidence is many times a serious problem. Although every claim to knowledge must be based on some grounds, there are statements which do not necessarily require evidence. E.g. analytic propositions that are self explanatory statements; statements based on existential and consciousness i.e. I feel frustrated. While we insist on evidence, we should exempt analytic proportions based on existential realities.

c. Sources of Knowledge

i. Authority as a Source of Knowledge

 It refers to people or individuals who occupy superior positions in relation to the claimant. Knowledge is here based on what those in authority have said i.e. I know it because so and so says so. People in authority include parents, teachers, preachers, authors, experts  and journalists. Authority is simply believed. Individuals rely on authority because they lack time to verify for themselves. Also, there tends to be lack of commitment to question issues and search for clear knowledge. In a classroom situation, students tend to believe wholesale whatever the teacher says. There is therefore a need for care and concern for truth on the part of the teacher.

Precautions when dealing with authority:

v  The person whose statement we believe must be a relevant authority in the field.

v  Authorities sometimes disagree. There is need to be careful: sometimes judgment needs to be suspended before arriving at a conclusion.

v  Verify information. Whenever we accept the other people’s statements, we should establish whether they are actually true.

v  No matter how reliable an authority is, it cannot be the primary source of knowledge.

ii. Revelation as source of Knowledge

This is a source of knowledge from which various religions derive their basic dogma. Although the truths recorded in sacred books are considered eternal, the language in which they are written is not hence religious scholars spend much time arguing over the precise meaning of words and expressions in the sacred textual interpretation. The purpose this is to bring to light the external truths that are locked in these words.

iii. Sense experience

Common sense tells as that sense experience is the starting point of knowledge for we begin to be conscious at all when we begin to exercise our senses.

If we merely looked at what occurs in our own lives, and reflect on our own experience, we realize that our minds, at the onset, are no more than “white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas” (Locke’s famous Tabula rasa, that is blank tablet) all we know or think about is ideas which come from experience.

iv.Intuition

The immediate knowledge of truth, without the aid of any reasoning and without appeal to experience is called intuition. It is sub-conscious activity, which instantly reveals into consciousness that which the mind has been at grips for a period of time.

v.Human reason

The view that reason is the sole source of knowledge is known as rationalism and the proponents of this doctrine are called rationalists. The human mind has innate structure that is responsible for a variety of intellectual competence.

The mind, by its reasoning power has instinctive capacity to discover knowledge within itself; knowledge is therefore a product of man’s power of thought and explanation.

Plato claimed that man’s knowledge is basically a recollection of the ideas which the soul had known in the perfect world of ideas before it was buried in the human body.

Education therefore, is to focus on the soul with the view to helping it recollect as much of that knowledge as possible.

Rationalists claim that it is dangerous to rely solely on our senses as they are prone to being highly insensitive and unreliable. Senses are capable of establishing conflicting results about the same phenomenon depending on our location, health condition and even attitude.

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d. Knowledge and Curriculum

Generally, curriculum refers to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and skills which are considered desirable for transmission to others. Knowledge is classified or categorized within the curriculum based on the following criteria:

1.  Language: each subject tends to have particular language e.g.in mathematics we can consider -matrix, integers, numbers…. In religion, discourse may rotate around concepts like God, sin, grace, soul, salvation, angels among others. Scientific language may employ jargons such as observation, replication, data collection, validity and others. Knowledge of is therefore crucial and without it other aspects of knowledge can only prove to be impossible to grasp. This is further justified from the premise that humans are symbolic and social beings. They interpret reality using symbols and convey it to other using language as the most crucial of the symbols.

2.   Methods of verification or testing: e.g. sciences depend on empirical observation and tests on experiments while mathematics and religion uses deductive reasoning. As such methods of verification and dissemination of knowledge are logically laden . It is imperative that any curriculum should therefore bring out clearly what is there to be known on procedural aspects of investigation and dissemination.

           3. Area of specialization or subject matter: Physical sciences dealing with natural world Social sciences concentrating on the world of culture, Philosophy and Religion dealing with world views and mathematics dealing with the world of numbers.

 Based on the above criteria, the following classifications of knowledge have been enunciated:

a.  Logic and mathematics.

b.  Physical sciences.

c.  Human sciences.

d.  Aesthetics (e.g. fine arts)

e.  Morality or ethics.

f.  Philosophy.

4. Theories of Assessment of Curriculum

      (a)    The utilitarian curriculum: This means the curriculum that is useful to the learner and one conducive to human happiness i.e. promotes the greatest amount of happiness for the largest possible number of people. Such a curriculum includes survival skills, social skills, and politics.

(b)   A curriculum for rationality (thinking systematically): It has to produce a rational mind. In order to cultivate  this certain subjects need to be incorporated i.e. logic, mathematics, philosophy.

(c)    A heritage curriculum: The chief point of education is to bring children into what exists as a public tradition of shared knowledge i.e. culture which refers to the intellectual aesthetic, moral and material achievements of mankind.

5. Role of the learner

a. Epistemology considers the learner as a knowing being and so an educable being(or Homo Educandus)

b. Epistemology anticipates that a learner be active both intrinsically and extrinsically in the pursuit of knowledge

c. Recognition of authority as a source of knowledge demands an appreciable but open degree of respect towards the authority of the teacher and learning resource materials.

d. Intuition is valid source of creativity in Education.

6. Learning Environment

Different epistemological systems call for various learning environments:

a. A realist/empircal epistemology with its emphasis on sense experience as a primary source  of knowing  advocates for a classroom environment with adequate teaching aids  that appeal to the senses like  photos, audio visuals, Tactile objects.... By extension it envisions equipments for practicals as in the case of laboratories and workshops

b. A rationalist epistemology emphasizes reasoning and deductive argumentation. As such its learning environment would be insufficient without books by renown authors. Books are primary for a rationalist environment.