Chapter 6, page 115
According to developmental psychologist Deanna Kuhn and her colleagues (Kuhn & Weinstock, 2002),
young children (around 3 years old) have a realist epistemology. Whatever people say is exactly the way
reality is. It is not possible for a person to say something that is not true. These children have not yet
developed the idea that statements can be false--either intentionally (lies) or unintentionally (errors).
By the age of 5 or so, children become absolutists. They now believe that knowledge is absolutely
certain, and any statement that is not right is wrong. Reality is directly knowable just by observing it. If
two people disagree, it means that one is right, and the other is wrong.
The next level is the multiplist level, in which students think that multiple ideas can be equally
correct. No longer is there an absolute, knowable right and wrong. If two people have different ideas, then
they each have their own opinion, and it is not possible to say that one is right and one is wrong. There is
no way at all to justify any general knowledge that is true for more than just one person. Some research
suggests that multiplist conceptions emerge after high school, though other research suggests that some
high schoolers adopt a multiplist stance.
Finally is the evaluativist level. At this level, students do not think that one opinion is as good as
another. Rather, a statement can be evaluated by considering arguments and evidence for and against it;
these students take the view that knowledge is justified on the basis of evaluating arguments on different
sides of a question and deciding which arguments are strongest. Reality cannot be directly known. One
cannot directly see entities such as atoms and stereotypes. Instead, one can only infer the existence of such
entities from the available evidence. Some research suggests that the evaluativist stance may be relatively
rare, even among adults.
Cultural and Linguistic Diversity.
Students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds are an important source of consistent conceptions,
alternative conceptions, and conceptual resources. Teachers can learn more about students’ prior
conceptions by gaining an understanding of their cultural and linguistic background
(Cazden, 1988; Nieto, 2004).
For example, consider an immigrant high school student from Japan who has learned in Japan a way
of writing creative essays that differs strikingly from what her American teacher is trying to teach her. In
Japanese writing, a mark of good writing is that the author include a digression on a tangential topic at one
point in the essay. This practice conflicts with the American teacher’s insistence, based on norms for
writing essays in English, that everything in the essay should be tightly organized and on topic. This
Japanese student has an alternative conception about writing—a conception perfectly acceptable within
Japanese literary norms but at odds with English literary norms. If the teacher understands this aspect of
Japanese culture, she will understand the student’s alternative conception. Then she will be better able to
work with this student to help her understand that norms for writing in Japanese and English are different.
Students’ cultural background can be a source of consistent conceptions on school topics. Consider
a high school class reading Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man, which describes events in the life of
an African-American man. African-American and other minority students are likely to have prior
experiences with racism that will help them make sense of the ideas expressed in the book. In other words,
they have consistent conceptions that will facilitate their understanding. The astute teacher can use these
students’ prior experiences as conceptual resources that can help other students in the class understand the
book. By having students elaborate on their experiences so that students who have not had such
experiences gain a deeper understanding of racism, the teacher helps other students gain a deeper
understanding. When one student relates her experiences, these experiences can serve as conceptual
resources to help other students understand the novel better.