Knowledge practices: ‘doing the subject’ in undergraduate courses

Abstract

This article addresses the themes of this special issue by examining the disciplinary dimensions of learning and teaching within undergraduate courses in the areas of biology and history. Key ways of thinking and practising that biology and history lecturers wished to foster in their students are identified. It presents a relational view of the role of these disciplinary ways of thinking and practising in undergraduate learning, and considers how domain knowledge exists in dynamic relationship with the practices that are implicated in its creation, interpretation and use. The epistemological challenges that students may face in grappling with a discipline are explored, and the intricate connection between the form and content of knowledge is highlighted. The article also points up the pedagogic actions that enabled students' affective and intellectual engagement with history.

Keywords:

• Disciplinary practices
• Domain knowledge
• Higher education
• Undergraduate learning and teaching

Notes

1. An affordance was originally coined by Gibson (1979) and refers to the opportunity that an environment offers to the learner, such that they can act in a way that takes advantage of what the environment offers.