Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that seeks to define "knowlege," that seeks to explain what is means "to know" something, that seeks to understand how humans come to "know" things.
Positivist believe knowledge to be a thing. They say it's born of scientific investigation. Certain facts, truths, relationships exist and they can be found if we explore the world. Knowledge constitutes factual and verifiable information. Knowledge and information are the same thing.
Constructivist believe knowledge can be defined as something very different from verifiable facts. When talking about knowledge it is the meaning assigned to facts that matter not just the facts. The facts are inert and meaningless until we attempt to interpret them and make them into a coherent picture. Knowledge is a matter of human interpretations. There is no knowledge with out a knower.
I identify with the Positivist. I believe that facts speak for themselves and don't change due to human interpretation. No matter what people think things will stay the same.
Good recap of the two epistemologies. Most people tend to identify with the epistomolgy that they were exposed to. However be sure to be open to other ideas. The FAA,the most positivist entity known to man, has started a shift to include constructivist. As scenario based training becomes more common place in flight training (currently required in the instrument pts!) a shift may need to be made. Not a complete shift, but scenario based training will not work from a top-down teacher centered approach.
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