Epistemology of Learning
Epistemology in simplest terms accounts for how people, in this case students from grades 1 to 12, acquire knowledge. During the beginning stages of our project data collected. It was obvious to us that computational literacy was a brand new skill for the majority of our students. In order to have buy in from them, we needed to think about how all students gain knowledge. Knowledge can be gained by connecting to three categories truth, belief, and justification (Richardson, 2014).
We needed to start with what our student’s beliefs were about coding and how it applies to their lives now and in their future. From there we shared the “Why” of our project. The truths and facts about how coding is the “new super power” (Baroudie, 2013). Finally the next phase was the procedural knowledge; how do we code? As our students were presented with facts and truths, with opportunities to try to code in different ways, their knowledge of coding increased and the student engagement improved. Our goal is for all students to gain an understanding and skill set of what computational literacy/ coding is and how it can be authentically applied to their lives as students and future professionals.
