Tag: Post-Truth Series

Should We Double Down on Truth? The Promise and Risks of Collective Sense-making with Dr. Noah Weeth Feinstein (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

The final talk in the Lab’s Spring 2021 Learning in a ‘Post-Truth’ World series took place Thursday, April 22 and featured the University of Wisconsin- Madison’s Dr. Noah Weeth Feinstein.

In 2020, Noah Weeth Feinstein and David Waddington argued for shifting the balance of science education away from individual truth-judgments and toward collective sense-making. How does that argument hold up? In this talk, Dr. Weeth Feinstein will review their argument and discuss both the promise and risks of wading deeper into the social world and engaging directly with messy problems in messy practical contexts. Dr. Weeth Feinstein concludes by asking whether concepts like value and appropriate respect offer more fruitful territory for science education than the familiar framing of truth and trust.

Watch a recording of the talk below.

Promoting Apt Epistemic Performance with Dr. Clark Chinn (Rutgers University)

On Thursday, March 11, the Lab hosted its second talk in our Learning in a ‘Post-Truth’ World series. Drawing on recent collaborations with Sarit Barzilai and Ravit Golan Duncan, Dr. Clark Chinn (Rutgers University) presents an overview of how educators can effectively respond to the “post-truth” challenges of misinformation, conflicting information, and mistrust in formerly trusted institutions of knowledge (e.g. science, media). Dr. Chinn begins with an analysis of apt epistemic performance as the goal of epistemic education. This analysis identifies five aspects of apt epistemic performance; many post- truth challenges can be viewed as involving breakdowns in these five aspects of apt epistemic performance. Dr. Chinn then outlines a set of design principles to improve education and address these breakdowns. These principles specify new ways to design learning environments that can foster the individual and collective abilities needed to think well in the modern world.

Watch a recording of the talk below.

Who to Believe? Conceptualizing and Navigating Epistemic Disagreement with Dr. Simon Knight (University of Technology Sydney)

The Lab’s Learning in a ‘Post-Truth’ World speaker series kicked off Monday, February 22, 2021 with Dr. Simon Knight‘s seminar Who to Believe? Conceptualizing and Navigating Disagreement. Dr. Knight is a senior lecturer in the University of Technology Sydney, Transdisciplinary School, Director of the Centre for Research on Learning in a Technological Society, and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Learning Analytics. His talk draws on research in epistemic cognition, including his own research on how people search for and talk about evidence, as well as recent work in conceptualizing expert-expert disagreement, to flag key implications for helping people navigate these issues.

Watch a recording of the webinar below.