Epistemic Fluency and Professional Education: Innovation, Knowledgeable Action and Actionable Knowledge

Lina Markauskaite · Peter Goodyear

Sep 2016 · Professional and Practice-based Learning Book 14 · Springer

About this ebook

This book, by combining sociocultural, material, cognitive and embodied perspectives on human knowing, offers a new and powerful conceptualisation of epistemic fluency – a capacity that underpins knowledgeable professional action and innovation. Using results from empirical studies of professional education programs, the book sheds light on practical ways in which the development of epistemic fluency can be recognised and supported - in higher education and in the transition to work.
The book provides a broader and deeper conception of epistemic fluency than previously available in the literature. Epistemic fluency involves a set of capabilities that allow people to recognize and participate in different ways of knowing. Such people are adept at combining different kinds of specialised and context-dependent knowledge and at reconfiguring their work environment to see problems and solutions anew.
In practical terms, the book addresses the following kinds of questions. What does it take to be a productive member of a multidisciplinary team working on a complex problem? What enables a person to integrate different types and fields of knowledge, indeed different ways of knowing, in order to make some well-founded decisions and take actions in the world? What personal knowledge resources are entailed in analysing a problem and describing an innovative solution, such that the innovation can be shared in an organization or professional community? How do people get better at these things; and how can teachers in higher education help students develop these valued capacities? The answers to these questions are central to a thorough understanding of what it means to become an effective knowledge worker and resourceful professional.

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About the author

Lina Markauskaite is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Research on Computer Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo), the University of Sydney. Lina has been carrying out studies in the areas technology-enhanced teaching and learning, professional knowledge and methodological innovation since the mid 90s. She has published more than 75 refereed papers and an edited book. Her most recent work spans two related areas. Her primary area is concerned with understanding the nature of capabilities involved in complex inter-professional knowledge work and learning. Her formulated theoretical accounts of professional knowing bring into a single framework insights from psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, design, linguistic, organisational studies, and science and technology studies (STS). The second research area is emerging inter-disciplinary research methods. Her recent work includes the co-edited book Methodological choice and design: Scholarship, policy and practice in social and educational research (Springer, 2010, with Peter Freebody and Jude Irwin) and a special issue eResearch for education: Applied, methodological and critical perspectives (with Peter Reimann, 2014).

Peter Goodyear is Professor of Education and Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia. He is the founding co-director of the Centre for Research on Computer Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo) and now also leads the University’s Sciences and Technologies of Learning research network, a multi-faculty network involving over 80 academic staff and PhD students. He has been carrying out research in the field of learning, technology and higher education since the early 80s. Peter’s research focuses on networked learning, the nature of professionals’ “working knowledge” and complexity in educational design. He has published nine books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters. His most recent books are The Architecture of productive learning networks (Routledge, co-edited with Lucila Carvalho), Handbook of design in educational technology (2013, Routledge, co-edited with Rose Luckin and colleagues), Technology-enhanced learning: design patterns and pattern languages (2010, Sense, co-edited with Simeon Retalis) and Students' experiences of e-learning in higher education: the ecology of sustainable innovation (2010, Routledge, co-authored with Rob Ellis).

Peter and Lina have been jointly working on projects investigating professional learning, design knowledge, knowledgeable action, innovation and epistemic fluency for the last seven years. Findings from their joint work provide the empirical basis for this book.