Identifying Discipline Specific Ways of Knowing
Directions:
Read a couple examples from the AP Research Library: AP Research Paper Library
SOCIAL SCIENCES
STEM
HUMANITIES
After reviewing discipline-specific ways of knowing and inquiring, provide individual responses to the following questions and then discuss your answers with your group:
1. In what way does the discipline (associated with your topic of inquiry) gather data or information to “know” or “understand” something?
2. What are some ways a researcher (in the discipline associated with your topic of inquiry) should share or present information so it is valued by the discipline?
3. How does conducting research and sharing results in ways that align to discipline expectations affect author credibility?
4. Where can you find evidence for how a specific discipline engages in research, communicates findings, and/or cites sources?
Colors of Disciplinary Understanding
Directions:
1. Using your responses and discussion from the previous task, develop a list of expectations/values from that discipline.
2. Create a Discipline Chart as a group: Include one to three bullets for each category:
› Method of Inquiring: Inductive or Deductive (prove a hypothesis or link together evidence to make a hypothesis)
› Gathering Data/Information (What is a researcher in that discipline looking for?)
› Analyzing Data/Information (How should that information be organized and interpreted?)
› Presenting information (How should a researcher in that discipline present results to others in that discipline?)
4. After listening to all other disciplines, add two more categories to your discipline chart:
› Commonalities (What are the overlaps among the different disciplines?)
› Differences (What are distinct differences among the disciplines?)
Reflect: Please add this in your PREP- Titled "Identify Discipline Specific Ways of Knowing"
1) What similarities exist between the disciplines and their ways of knowing through forms, knowledge, methods, and purposes?
2) How can you use the discipline-specific ways of knowing activity to strengthen your rationale for the method you will choose to develop or use to engage in your own research?