Practical exercises on epistemic stance
Being aware of your own epistemic stance is crucial in conducting conversations about topics in the natural sciences with children, and this insight should be a part of all the practical tasks we suggest in the practice section on this website as well as in real-life conversations that you have with children.
Step 1:
- Get together in pairs or in a larger group
- Take any object at hand
- First introduce and describe the object very passively and without interest
- Change the inner attitude towards the object and present it with full enthusiasm to the others
- Observe the difference in yourself and the listeners
- How did you feel? What has changed?
- Recognise that the inner attitude towards any object of interaction significantly influences the further course of a conversation
Step 2:
- Walk through the room showing lowinterest in anything and very low energy
- Reflect on what it does with your mentality and body language
- Change your attitude to being very interested and excited about life and everything that’s around you
- Take that attitude and let it guide you through the room
- Reflect on what it does with your mentality and body language
- What did you experience?
- How did it feel? What changed with the change in the inner attitude?
- Recognise that the inner attitude influences not only your conversations but your whole outlook on life as well as the body language