EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 6, page 110

Students vary in the extent to which they think that knowledge is certain or uncertain. A belief that
knowledge is uncertain is an availing student belief. For example, students who think that knowledge is
certain are less likely to understand and remember two different arguments on a position than students
who think that knowledge is not certain. In contrast, students who believe that knowledge is certain have
difficult learning topics in which there is disagreement and controversy (Chinn, in press-c). They may be
confused by why there are different positions presented, and they just want to be told the “right answer.”

Justifications of knowledge. The justification of knowledge is the grounds on which we believe
that a claim is true (Hofer, 2000; Hofer & Pintrich, 2002). Why do we believe that atoms exist? Why do
we believe that colonial opposition to the British policy of taxation without representation was a cause of
the American Revolutionary War? Why do we believe that stereotypes can be harmful to individuals? The
answers to these questions are our grounds for believing what we believe. For example, a student might
believe that stereotypes are harmful to individuals based on authority (my psychology professor said so,
and I believe she is an authority on this subject), based on personal experience (“I have personally
experienced the negative effects of people’s stereotypes about me”), or based on evaluation of arguments
(“I have considered arguments on both sides of this questions, and I think that overall, the evidence
supports the idea that stereotypes are harmful”). Several common student conceptions of how knowledge
is justified are summarized in Table 6.7 (Hammer & Elby, 2002, 2003; Hofer, 2001).

Table 6.7
Common conceptions of how knowledge is justified

Type of
justification

Definition Examples

Authority A student believes an idea
because a trusted person
(including a textbook author)
says that it is true.

Jennifer believes molecular theory because the textbook
says matter is made of molecules.
Doug believes that the Vietnam War could have been
won because her father says so.
Inference
from other
knowledge

A student believes something

by drawing inferences from

other ideas that are known.

Fatima derives a new geometric principle through
mathematical proof from other, more basic
principles.
Max infers that whales must bear live young based on
his other knowledge that whales are mammals.
Intuition A student believes that
something is true because he
just feels that it is true.

Isabelle believes that flash cards are a good way to study
vocabulary because she just knows it. There’s no
need to give any further reason.
Personal
experience

A student believes something

based on her own life

experiences. Personal

experiences can include one’s

own observations of the

world.

Kylie believes that sexism exists based on her own
experiences of being treated in a sexist manner.
Toby believes matter is conserved because of
experiments in class that showed that the amount of
matter stayed constant through all kinds of physical
and chemical changes.
Empirical
evidence

A student believes an idea

because others (e.g.,

scientists, social scientists,

historians) gave gathered data

that show it is true.

Rachel believes that eyewitness testimony is not very
trustworthy because of psychological experiments
she read about in her high school psychology class.
Augustin believes that global warming is occurring
based on some recent data his teacher showed to his
science class.
Evaluation of A student believes that an Brayden has examined evidence and arguments for and