The Nature of Knowledge and Knowledge Creation Joseph D. Novak Cornell University, Professor Emeritus Senior Research Scientist Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Beijing Normal University Professor’s Program August Cleveland, Ohio Joseph D. Novak Cornell University, Professor Emeritus Senior Research Scientist Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Beijing Normal University Professor’s Program August Cleveland, Ohio

Epistemology: The study of knowledge and knowledge creation Most of the 19 th and 20 th Centuries: Dominated by Positivism and Logical Positivism: Truth, once established, is eternal. Developed in later half of 20 th Century: Constructivism: Knowledge evolves over time.

Knowledge is built up from organized concepts and propositions A Theory of Knowledge

Concept: A perceived regularity or pattern in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label A Theory of Knowledge

Proposition: Two or more concepts combined to form a statement about something: a unit of meaning A Theory of Knowledge

Some patters or regularities That can be observed Boiling Point Freezing point Celsius thermometer Fahrenheit thermometer Not observed: Heat Molecular motion

D. Bib Gowin, 1979 The Vee Heuristic was invented by D. Bob Gowin in 1977

Gowin’s Knowledge Vee showing the 12 elements involved in creating new knowledge

A Vee diagram showing the elements required to study what Knowledge children and their parents share.

A Parade of Vees shows how knowledge evolves over time

The Vee heuristic can also be used as a tool to represent interviewee’s knowledge

The ideas represented in the left side and right side of the Vee can be represented as concept maps.

Draw a Vee diagram to address the focus question: How can we measure temperature using a thermometer?

Thank You!