admin%cogsci@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (Cognitive Science Program) (01/23/86)
BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM Spring 1986 Cognitive Science Seminar - IDS 237B Tuesday, January 28, 11:00 - 12:30 [NB. New Location] 2515 Tolman Hall Discussion: 12:30 - 1:30 [location TBA] ``Knowledge in Pieces'' Andrea A. diSessa Math Science and Technology, School of Education Abstract Naive Physics concerns expectations, descriptions and explanations about the way the physical world works that people seem spontaneously to develop through interaction with it. A recent upswing in interest in this area, particularly concern- ing the relation of naive physics to the learning of school physics, has yielded significant interesting data, but little in the way of a theoretical foundation. I would like to pro- vide a sketch of a developing theoretical frame together with many examples that illustrate it. In broad strokes, one sees a rich but rather shallow (in a sense I will define), loosely coupled knowledge system with elements that originate often as minimal abstractions of common phenomena. Rather than a "change of theory" or even a shift in content of the knowledge system, it seems that developing understanding of classroom physics may better be described in terms of a change in structure that includes selection and integration of naive knowledge elements into a system that is much less data-driven, less context dependent, more capable of "reliable" (in a technical sense) descriptions and explana- tions. In addition I would like to discuss some hypothetical changes at a systematic level that do look more like changes of theory or belief. Finally, I would like to consider the poten- tial application of this work to other domains of knowledge, and the relation to other perspectives on the problem of knowledge.