Social Construction Of Knowledge Research Articles

Perceptions, Knowledge, and Emotions About Owls in Southern Ecuador

Owls hold significant utilitarian and aesthetic values for humans, ranging from pest control to ecotourism. However, cultural beliefs rooted in negative perceptions and emotions have led to conflicts and threats to many owl species. In South America, research on the relationship between owls and people is limited. This study aims to identify the variables involved in the construction of social knowledge, perceptions, and emotions toward owls. Face-to-face questionnaires were administered to residents in southern Ecuador. The data were analyzed using decision trees, a novel approach in ethnobiology. The results indicate that participants exhibited accurate knowledge of owl diet and habitat, with a majority having previous owl sightings and familiarity with their vocalizations. These factors, along with the sources informing their knowledge (such as school and family), contribute to the development of neutral perceptions and emotions toward these birds. The majority of participants recognize the importance of owls for the environment and support their conservation, with these two variables playing a crucial role in shaping positive emotions. Additionally, perceptions and emotions are primarily influenced by the region of residence. The presented data provide valuable insights into the significance of social perceptions and emotions in designing strategies to mitigate intentional owl mortality and persecution resulting from misconceptions and misperceptions.

Framing News and Framing Migrants: A Qualitative Study

Frames can have an essential role in the (re)production of the ‘shared ideologies’ concerning several social categories, including migrants. The overall aim of this work is to investigate the discursive construction of frames concerning migration, as rhetoric tools (a) connected to editorial orientations; (b) related to both specific events and more general thematic news articles; (c) having socio-cultural and emotional connotations. The qualitative analysis of 235 Italian news articles enabled us to outline different configurations of discursive elements as well as to identify different emotional pathways. Reflections about the critical role of framing in the social knowledge construction are proposed.

Understanding the experience of graduate students’ social knowledge construction in a learning community: Focusing on BK21 project participants

Understanding the experience of graduate students’ social knowledge construction in a learning community: Focusing on BK21 project participants

Collaborative learning and the social construction of knowledge associated with Bloom

The idea that knowledge should be built through interaction between people is not current, since the 18th century, educators already used the philosophy of meaningful learning, seeking to develop autonomy in students to enhance their learning and consequently the development of their profession. In recent decades, the collaborative learning proposal has been gaining supporters at all levels and modalities of teaching and learning, due to the fact that learning collaboratively makes learning more efficient and meaningful. With the use of technological resources, the collaborative learning proposal is reinforced, as this association can enable dynamic learning with different results for specific contexts. The means of attending to and obtaining the learning process requires instruments that help in the pedagogical planning, in the definition of objectives, in the choice of resources, among them, the technological ones and in the evaluation instruments. The adoption of the paths described and suggested by this methodology is one of those instruments that aims to support these choices, with a view to making collaborative learning efficient and successful, establishing a relationship between cognitive development and learning objectives. Thus, in this work, the importance of collaborative learning for learning focused on student autonomy will be highlighted. In addition to imposing the possible adoption of the Blended Learning modality to reinforce the connection and exchange of information in collaborative learning and Bloom.

Deep Learning Models for Analyzing Social Construction of Knowledge Online

Gunawardena et al.’s (1997) Interaction Analysis Model (IAM) is one of the most frequently employed frameworks to guide the qualitative analysis of social construction of knowledge online. However, qualitative analysis is time consuming, and precludes immediate feedback to revise online courses while being delivered. To expedite analysis with a large dataset, this study explores how two neural network architectures—a feed-forward network (Doc2Vec) and a large language model transformer (BERT)—could automatically predict phases of knowledge construction using IAM. The methods interrogated the extent to which the artificial neural networks’ predictions of IAM Phases approximated a human coder’s qualitative analysis. Key results indicate an accuracy of 21.55% for Doc2Vec phases I-V, 43% for fine-tuning a pre-trained large language model (LLM), and 52.79% for prompt-engineering an LLM. Future studies for improving accuracy should consider either training the models with larger datasets or focusing on the design of prompts to improve classification accuracy. Grounded on social constructivism and IAM, this study has implications for designing and supporting online collaborative learning where the goal is social construction of knowledge. Moreover, it has teaching implications for guiding the design of AI tools that provide beneficial feedback for both students and course designers.

Using discourse analysis in contemporary social research

The aim of this article is to sum up the principles of social constructivism as a foundation of all theories of discourse, and to identify key characteristics of main discursive theories, as well as perspectives of their use in the research of inequalities. We explore key theories of discourse (critical discourse analysis and theoretical frameworks based on works of Foucault and Laclau and Mouffe), and application of methodological approaches of discourse analysis stemming out from these theories, in current social research. All discourse theories are founded on principles of social constructivism: social construction of knowledge, existence of multiple variants of knowledge, simultaneous construction and reproduction of social reality in the process of social relations, and an idea that subjects construct knowledge inside of discourse, while discourse in turn constructs social reality. Characteristics of discourse theories were identified around criteria of the degree of inclusivity of discourse, functions of discourse, stability of discursive structure, degree of subjects’ agency. Approaches to discourse analysis that stem from the works of Foucault and Laclau and Mouffe suggest a strong link between theory and methodology, with research methods less clearly defined. Critical discourse analysis fills this gap in methodological developments. In particular, for social research purposes, Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis is widely used, looking at discourse as a social practice, a type of speech, typical of a certain area of knowledge, and as an articulation of a person’s or a social group’s lived experience that stems from their structural position. Fairclough’s analytical model consists of three levels: a detailed linguistic analysis of the text, analysis of daily routine practices and ways in which people construct social order, and macrosociological analysis of the social practice. The article ends with discussion of examples and common areas of discourse analysis usage in research of structural social inequalities.

Integrating Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Authentic Learning with Technology in Teaching and Learning: A Case Study Analysis

This research work presents a comprehensive framework that merges Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (C), Authentic Learning (A), and six distinct roles of Technology (T) in the context of teaching and learning. The study reviews five individual case studies that explore the utilization of technology in educational settings, examining their alignment with the CAT framework. The research highlights the significance of adventure games as an effective medium for knowledge construction, wherein embedded puzzles and core content serve as extrinsic mediators, while discussions between players intrinsically mediate knowledge construction. Additionally, artifacts of mass media, such as games, software, and other media, facilitate knowledge production when they function as tools rather than objects of the activity. Drawing on Vygotskian concepts of social tool-mediated dialogical knowledge construction, the research concludes that games and media play an integral role in enhancing teaching and learning experiences. This study aims to contribute to the broader understanding of technology integration in education, encouraging educators to adopt transformative approaches to optimize the benefits of technology in the learning process.

Revolutions in Chemistry: Assessment of Six 20th Century Candidates (The Instrumental Revolution; Hückel Molecular Orbital Theory; Hückel's 4n + 2 Rule; the Woodward-Hoffmann Rules; Quantum Chemistry; and Retrosynthetic Analysis).

Six 20th century candidates for revolutions in chemistry are examined, using a definitional scheme published recently by the author. Six groupings of 13 characteristics of revolutions in science are considered: causes and birthings of revolutions, relationships between the old and the new, conceptual qualities of the candidate revolutions, instrumental and methodological functions, social construction of knowledge and practical considerations, and testimonials. The Instrumental Revolution was judged to be a revolution in chemistry because of the enormous increase in community-wide knowledge provided by the new instruments and the intentionality in the identification of specific target instruments, in the mindfulness in their design, manufacture, testing, use, and ultimately commercialization. The Woodward-Hoffmann rules were judged to precipitate the Quantum Chemistry Revolution because of theoretical, practical, and social construction of knowledge characteristics. Neither Hückel molecular orbital theory nor Hückel's 4n + 2 rule was considered an initiator of a revolution in chemistry but rather participants in the Quantum Chemistry Revolution. Retrosynthetic analysis was not judged to initiate a revolution in chemistry.

Fostering University Students’ Motivation through Dialogic Classroom Practices: A Conceptual Model

This conceptual paper presents a model for engaging students and promoting motivation through dialogic classroom practices. The author argues that fostering dialogic teaching and learning in the classroom can positively impact student motivation and learning outcomes. The proposed model highlights the importance of creating a classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas and engaging in meaningful discussions. This conceptual article is lensed within transformative paradigm, presenting dialogic pedagogy as a concept analysed using conceptual analysis. Dialogic pedagogy was presented, and the key assumptions, such as promoting classroom dialogue, valuing all voices, emphasising social knowledge construction, and instructors acting as facilitators of learning, were discussed vis-à-vis its correctional tendencies with student motivation and learning outcomes. The paper also highlights the potential benefits of dialogic classroom practices for diverse and borderless student populations. The conclusion is that promoting classroom dialogue, valuing all voices, emphasising social knowledge construction, and acting as facilitators of learning are dimensions to enhance student motivation towards learning outcomes. The paper offers a valuable contribution to the literature by providing a comprehensive framework for educators to effectively engage and motivate their students through dialogic practices.

Beyond reading together: Facilitating knowledge construction through participation roles and social annotation in college classrooms

Social reading is a common practice in higher education to engage students in critical reading and classroom dialogues around course materials. This paper introduces a study that integrated a social annotation technology and a scaffolding framework to support social reading in undergraduate classrooms. The framework, grounded in the computer-supported collaborative learning literature, specifies three participation roles—namely, facilitator, synthesizer, and summarizer—that have distinct responsibilities in each week's social reading activities. Using Hypothesis, the social annotation technology, we piloted the framework in a fully online undergraduate course. To examine how the framework facilitated social interaction and knowledge construction, we applied social network analysis and content analysis to a rich dataset. Results revealed that the framework fostered active participation in class with students followed the assigned roles properly. This study has practical implications for online teaching and collaborative learning in higher education.

The Learning Design of MOOC Discussion Forums: An Analysis of Forum Instructions and Their Role in Supporting the Social Construction of Knowledge

The Learning Design of MOOC Discussion Forums: An Analysis of Forum Instructions and Their Role in Supporting the Social Construction of Knowledge

Social construction of public relations knowledge by academic institutions worldwide: A bibliometric network analysis

This VOSviewer-enabled bibliometric study examines scientific knowledge construction in public relations research since 1955. A co-citation analysis indicates that while sustaining its cross-disciplinary nature, public relations increasingly relies on scholarship generated within its own discipline, with Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly most cited academic sources. A citation analysis of author affiliations revealed a number of findings, including universities with the highest count of publications, university pairs that tend to cite each other, as well as regional university groups and large clusters within a broader, citation-based network. Among the 108 most productive academic institutions from four continents included into the study, U.S.-based universities produced the highest number of publications in nine peer-reviewed journals. Cross-referencing citation relationships among university clusters in different world regions illustrates an ongoing pattern of globalized construction of public relations knowledge.

Pacific Island children: The use of maps in helping better understand children's lives

Children's voices have been little heard in the Pacific research. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 asserts the child's right to have a say on matters that affect them and for their views to be considered. There has been massive growth in technologically assisted participative research; however, we argue the value of hand drawn maps should not be underestimated in the rush to engage with more advanced techniques. We present data from 267 neighbourhood maps drawn by children in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and New Zealand. To better understand the social construction of knowledge in children's everyday lives, we propose two models to conceptualise the complexity of their world, a social connection and a spatial connection model. These models reveal how Pacific Island children negotiate different levels of social connection from home, family, and community through to transnational kinship relations. People, specifically family, provide the geographic basis on which their spatial encounters are overlaid. Irrespective of country or rural/urban/atoll setting, it is social space that is the strongest connector for children as displayed in their maps. Application of our models can be used to reveal how knowledge is socially constructed in Pacific children's everyday lives.

Learning technology beyond positivism and criticism: Reconnecting learning with society through online teaching

In recent years, literatures related to the use of technology for teaching and learning have proliferated, which can be divided into two groups: technology positivism and technology criticism. The technology positivism literatures posit that communities can be created in online platforms whereas the second group of literatures argue that learning technologies can detach learning from human societies. Despite criticisms, creating an online learning community has become the focus of technology positivism literatures whereas the notion of learning society that connected learning with society has disappeared. Drawing on key sociological theories of learning such as constructivism, social cognition, and communicative actions, this paper argues that the notion of learning society is a better alternative of online learning community. It proposes online learning society as an alternative model for online teaching and discusses its three key components: social construction of knowledge, situated cognition and social integration.

Cooperative learning for geometric notions in kids of 5-years-old in kindergarten

Cooperative learning has become a fundamental teaching-learning strategy for the social construction of knowledge. This methodology is ideal for students at kindergarten in regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, where the effects of learning poverty condition socioeconomic development. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate the incidence of cooperative learning in the teaching of geometry in 5-year-old students belonging to educational institutions of the kindergarten in the three natural regions of Peru. This was qualitative, descriptive-correlational research. Two data collection instruments were applied to 78 students who served as a sample. To analyze the relationship between the variables, Spearman's Rank-Order was used, which confirmed the positive relationship between them; therefore, the influence of incorporating this type of learning does have an impact on the logical development of children. Quality education with optimal learning strategies will lead these students in the future to a good level of performance in academic tests such as PISA.

High-Level Radioactive Disposal Policy in Japan: A Sociological Appraisal

This study critically appraises the Japanese government’s high-level radioactive disposal policy by drawing on three sociological perspectives: risk society, sociology of scientific knowledge, and social acceptance. The risk society theory emphasizes that the Government of Japan and scientists under its control are pursuing nuclear power policy and repository siting within the conventional paradigm of the first modernity, which no longer aligns with the current reality of nuclear power utilization and its public awareness in Japan. Thus, a reflexive response from the policy side is essential to address the demands of a risk society. The sociology of scientific knowledge supports this view by demonstrating that, while scientists under governmental control attempt to convince the public of the safety of their geological disposal methods and the scientific validity of their siting procedures, these claims are largely a social construction of knowledge riddled with uncertainty and ambiguity about inherent environmental risks. The social acceptance standpoint also reveals a substantial bias in government measures toward ensuring distributive, procedural, and interpersonal fairness. Specifically, it critiques the heavy official reliance on monetary compensation to the host community, limited consideration of the allocation of intergenerational decision-making rights based on the reversibility principle, and the implementing agency’s one-way asymmetrical risk communication for public deliberation.

Role of the interaction space in shaping innovation for sustainable agriculture: Empirical insights from African case studies

The challenges of climate change, food insecurity and land degradation have all led to a push for ‘scaling’ innovation for sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, international agricultural development projects often use farm trials or farmer field schools as a way for farmers to engage with technically-constructed knowledge and empirical evidence. However, the role of such trials in the socio-political construction of knowledge is often overlooked. This study conceptualises agricultural development interventions as taking place within an interaction space between researchers and farmers. Unpacking the processes and dynamics of the interaction space from four case studies across Malawi and mainland Tanzania, we present findings which evaluate: 1) how agricultural innovation takes place in the context of funded agricultural development projects, and 2) how space for technical and social knowledge construction can be opened up or closed down in these contexts.Results show that farm trials provide a basis for interaction, but that knowledge exchange in these contexts also require knowledge brokers for successful implementation and scaling. Both knowledge brokers, and the trials themselves shape social dynamics, often simultaneously facilitating social learning for some, but contributing to social exclusions for others. A strong connection was identified between the design of the interaction space and social dynamics evident within it, indicative of the close interconnection between the processes of socio-political and technical construction of knowledge. Key factors open or close the interaction space, such as the continuity of knowledge brokers and the complexity of technologies. Improving the effectiveness of innovation for sustainable agriculture, requires opening up the interaction space to enable more effective and sustained co-creation of technologies, social learning and the collaborative construction of shared knowledge.

The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment

Drawing on the example of kuśtī-pahalvānī (traditional wrestling in India) to engage with arguments presented in each of the chapters that have come before, this “Afterword” engages with the problem of how meaning is assigned to physical practices and to the body engaged in various forms of self-development and self-discipline. An analytical perspective based on semiotic theory is used to examine the problem of embodied meaning as well as methodological questions about how to compare various forms of physical practice. Emphasis is placed on the contingency of meaning and on the social construction of knowledge, as the social construction of knowledge provides a framework for understanding the intellectual significance of both transcendental consciousness and physical fitness.

The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns in the Study of Postural Practice

Drawing on the example of kuśtī-pahalvānī (traditional wrestling in India) to engage with arguments presented in each of the chapters that have come before, this “Afterword” engages with the problem of how meaning is assigned to physical practices and to the body engaged in various forms of self-development and self-discipline. An analytical perspective based on semiotic theory is used to examine the problem of embodied meaning as well as methodological questions about how to compare various forms of physical practice. Emphasis is placed on the contingency of meaning and on the social construction of knowledge, as the social construction of knowledge provides a framework for understanding the intellectual significance of both transcendental consciousness and physical fitness.

Dialectical Inferences in the Construction of Social Domain Knowledge

Dialectical Inferences in the Construction of Social Domain Knowledge