Applying the Grasp-of-Evidence Framework to Design and Evaluate Epistemically Complex Learning Environments

Abstract

The contemporary information world is epistemically complex—rife with conflicts, misinformation, and diverse forms of poor evidence. To prepare learners for this world, educators must enable learners to handle this epistemic complexity. As one important component, this includes preparing learners to handle the various forms of poor evidence that they will encounter—from low-quality studies touted as proof that vaccinations are harmful to cherry picked evidence on climate change that flies in the face of scientific consensus. This paper presents an analytic template based on the Grasp of Evidence Framework for analyzing learning environments according to how well they prepare students to reason well with various kinds of good and poor evidence they will encounter in the contemporary world. We illustrate the use of this analytic template by applying it to evaluate our own science curriculum; the design principles we discuss are more broadly applicable to any curricula aiming to prepare students to reason well with good and poor evidence encountered in the information world.