Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton March 22, 2017

Epistemological dimensions on screen: The role of television presentations in changing conceptions about the nature of knowledge and knowing

  • Lars Guenther EMAIL logo and Sabrina H. Kessler
From the journal Communications

Abstract

In (in)formal learning scenarios, individuals should develop epistemological beliefs (i.e., individual conceptions about the nature of knowledge and knowing) that are advantageous for understanding everyday science- and health-related information. To date, researchers measuring how to foster students’ discipline-specific epistemological beliefs have often tested researcher-designed texts in short-term interventions. Applying this logic to audio-visual stimuli, television clips might also affect (e.g., change) the epistemological beliefs of students. To test this assumption, three different television stimuli on the subject of Alzheimer’s disease with varying levels depicting the presented knowledge (as more advantageous, moderate, or less advantageous) were therefore selected by means of a content analysis, and their effects tested on a sample of 72 students using a pre-/post-test questionnaire. The results showed some partial support for the assumption that the epistemological beliefs of participants could become less advantageous when they are exposed to television clips depicting knowledge as moderate or less advantageous.

Published Online: 2017-3-22
Published in Print: 2017-11-27

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 25.9.2023 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/commun-2017-0020/html
Scroll to top button