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Specific Academic Learning:
Specific Academic Learning:
Each academic disciplines contains it's own characteristic ways of thinking.
An important goal in both K-12 and postsecondary education is to develop students’ facility with the modes of thought in the subjects they study
In order for students to readily engage in deep learning, they must become conversant in the specific academic language used within and across content areas.
For example, scholars have identified what it means to “talk science” (Lemke, 1990) or to participate in “the discourse of mathematics” (Cobb and Bauersfeld, 1995; also see, e.g., National Research Council, 2005, 2007).
Five Core Constructs of Knowledge:
Five Core Constructs of Knowledge:
The following five core constructs to characterize knowledge across disciplines are:
1. Epistemology, that is, beliefs about the nature of knowledge and the nature of knowing
2. Inquiry practices and strategies of reasoning
3. Overarching concepts, themes, and frameworks
4. Forms of information representation, including different types of texts
5. Discourse practices, including the oral and written language used to convey information
These variations across subject areas in the structure of knowledge, epistemologies, and disciplinary practices are as important to the design of effective learning experiences for students as the general principles of learning discussed in previous chapters.
"Becoming more proficient in a domain is not simply a matter of acquiring knowledge. Rather, learning in a content area involves a process of engaging in disciplinary practices that require learners to use knowledge in the context of discipline-specific activities and tasks."
Application for teachers:
Application for teachers:
Teachers should...
determine which disciplinary specific knowledge they expect their students to have before and after they take their course.
consider ways to model the thinking of an expert in their discipline.
promote understanding of why their discipline is important and how it contributes to our understanding of the world.
show students how to read disciplinary-specific texts
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