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Research Brief

Making sense of competing beliefs through mental switching

January 1, 2014 | Media and Technology, Public Programs, Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks, Exhibitions, Informal/Formal Connections
How do people make sense of conflicting beliefs? Although Gottlieb & Wineburg’s paper is about highly educated professionals reading history, informal science educators will recognize similar issues when working with people who hold beliefs incompatible with scientific ways of understanding the world. “Epistemic switching” was a way of considering criteria for truth, reliability, and validity according to one belief system or another. Rather than simply believing or excluding ideas as people who held to only one value system, the people with multiple, competing affiliations actually more deeply considered the meanings and reasons for claims – a key skill in scientific argumentation, too.

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    Author
    University of Washington
  • Citation

    Resource Type: Research Products
    Discipline: General STEM | Social science and psychology
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals | Scientists | Learning Researchers
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Public Programs | Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks | Exhibitions | Informal/Formal Connections

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