A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

222 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
Component
Table 15.3 Dimensions associated with components of the personal epistemology
Emerging dimension and description
Beliefs about
knowledge
and knowing:
How one views
what constitutes
knowledge and
the various
actions
associated with
being able
to know.
Beliefs about
knowledge
construction:
How one views
the development
or accumulation
of knowledge.
Beliefs about
knowledge
evaluation:
How one
attributes more
value to certain
forms of
knowledge
over others.
Beliefs about the nature of knowledge:
The teacher’s views on what constitutes knowledge in general, not
necessarily in his or her discipline.
*Beliefs about the act of knowing:
The teacher’s views on what people do when they know or how
people know in general (not about acquiring knowledge but rather
the action of knowing).
*Beliefs about how people learn in general:
The teacher’s views on issues of learning and knowledge construction
that are applicable to all individuals, not just about them or specific to
their discipline.
*Beliefs about how one learns specifically:
The teacher’s views on issues of learning and knowledge construction
that are specific to them only, how one believes people learn, not
specific to their discipline.
*Beliefs about the relative value of knowledge:
The teacher’s views on the ordering or relative importance of certain
types or sources of knowledge.
Beliefs about how to evaluate knowledge:
The teacher’s views on how one makes judgements on the relative
importance of certain types or sources of knowledge, how the teacher
him or herself evaluates knowledge.
Some dimensions were present in all four university teachers, despite the fact that these
individuals came from different disciplines. Such dimensions may therefore be thought
of as ‘core’ dimensions or ones that are likely to be important to develop for most
university teachers, regardless of their academic discipline. In Tables 15.1 to 15.3 core
dimensions are identified with an asterisk. Table 15.1 corresponds, broadly speaking, to
elements presented in Part 1 of the book whereas Table 15.2 corresponds to elements
presented in Part 2.
Case study 2 provides illustrations of the DPK of a particular university teacher who
took part in the DPK study.