Learning By Doing

Studies of science-as-practice increase robustness of epistemology while assuming that scientists are simply cognitive agents in specialized communities in which (a) human judgment and representational use are exercised within research (Giere, 1992), (b) scientists’ problemsolving strategies and representations, refined over the history of science, are sophisticated outgrowths of ordinary reasoning and representations (Nersessian, 1999), and (c) mental models are integral to reasoning and capable of illustrating dynamic cause and effect in real-world systems.