Thesis--M. Phil., University of Hong Kong.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed Febuary 22, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-39).

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been widely adopted as an important approach to medical education in order to help students master knowledge by solving authentic problems. However, the effect of PBL on students’ construction of a well-organized knowledge base is found not satisfactory. It is assumed that learning a concept found in a problem will automatically result in that concept being used to solve other problems, which is not always the case. Knowledge gained from practice is found difficult to retain and reuse as a result of contextualization and dynamic aspects of actual problem-solving practice. Reciprocity between practice and knowledge has been insufficiently investigated in existing studies. The purpose of this study was to address the challenge by aligning knowledge construction with problem solving through the design of a computer-based cognitive tool and implementation of the tool into an online learning environment. The tool consists of the argument mapping technique to represent the problem-solving processes and the concept mapping technique to represent the knowledge constructed from the problem-solving experience, so called dual-mapping tool. This study adopted a design-based research paradigm with two rounds of design and evaluation to explore how the proposed dual-mapping learning (DML) environment could be designed to externalize and connect the problem-solving and knowledge-construction processes and to evaluate how effectively the DML environment could support PBL. The design of the DML environment was underpinned by the cognitive apprenticeship model, which is widely used in situated learning contexts such as PBL. The model highlights the importance of offering an authentic learning context, externalizing complex cognitive processes, and providing expert guidance on learning processes. Accordingly, the proposed DML environment consists of an authentic problem context for exploration, a dual-mapping tool for articulation and reflection of problem-solving and knowledge-construction processes, and expert support for modeling, coaching, and scaffolding these complex processes. The evaluation study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the DML environment in terms of its acceptance by students, students’ problem-solving and knowledge-construction performances, and its impact on learning emotions and motivation to learn. Medical students from two medical schools in Mainland China participated in the study to use the DML environment. Multiple-source data was collected from questionnaire surveys, pre-and post-competency tests, semi-structured interviews, and log file data of online learning records, and was analyzed through descriptive statistical analysis, analysis of means, correlation analysis, analysis of variance, and content analysis. The evaluation results suggested that the students found the DML environment useful, and that the DML environment was effective in improving clinical problem-solving and medical-knowledge construction performance, as well as activating positive emotions and motivation in PBL. The findings of the study have practical implications for educators and learning technology designers as well as theoretical implications for educational researchers. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Master / Master of Arts

No description available.

The possibility of considering the ethical domain as cognitive is a principal concern of contemporary moral philosophy. Following an analysis of Hilary Putnam's internal realism, I discuss how our usual conceptions of truth and factuality should be modified in order to render philosophical discourse free of the fact/value distinction. I then present a response to Gilbert Harman's argument for non-cognitivism in ethics and argue that, within an internal realism that incorporates such modified conceptions, the non-cognitive argument no longer carriers any weight.

This research project investigates the nature of university professors' discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge (DPK). Traditionally, DPK has been examined with the help of constructs from two distinct lines of research: the knowledge base for teaching and disciplinary specificity in university teaching. Yet, the two lines of research have seldom been combined to explore DPK. Furthermore, linkages between those two lines of research point to the potential contribution of research on personal epistemologies. Therefore, the aim of this research is to describe empirically the phenomenon of DPK using constructs from these three lines of research. / The research project takes the form of an instrumental multicase study of four university professors from four different disciplines. Each professor was interviewed five times, thus providing insight into their thinking about teaching, their discipline and their knowledge in general. Transcripts were analysed using a mixed a priori/emerging coding scheme. / The data analysis led to the identification of components and dimensions of DPK corresponding to constructs from each line of research. Simultaneously, relationships between those components and dimensions were identified. Furthermore, the analysis singled out components, dimensions, and relationships common to the four professors, thus providing information about elements of DPK university professors share, regardless of their discipline of instruction. / Overall, the findings provide an empirical framework of university professors' DPK that captures the phenomenon more accurately than has been the case with previous approaches. Therefore, from a theoretical standpoint, the DPK framework furthers our understanding of the difficulties faced by university professors when attempting to relate their pedagogical knowledge to the specific characteristics of their discipline of instruction. From an educational standpoint, the DPK framework points to specific aspects of the learning experience of university professors that need to be supported by academic development efforts.

Writing in seventh century India, the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti developed a system of epistemology in which he recognized yogic intuition as a valid source of knowledge crowning the practice of meditation and capable of causing the psychological transformation necessary for the achievement of nirvana. But his account of the epistemological character of yogic intuition was controversial. Indeed, while it consists in a full understanding of a conceptual object (i.e. the four noble truths), Dharmakirti insisted that, due to its clarity, the yogin's intuition be considered a category of sensation, which by definition is non-conceptual and pertains to particular objects. This thesis is an analysis of Dharmakirti's account of yogic intuition as a category of cognition allowing the non-conceptual knowledge of conceptual objects.