ABSTRACT
The empirical approach to knowledge is based on observations.1 Everyone uses the empirical approach in his or her daily life. For instance, if a teacher observes students becoming restless during a certain lesson, he or she might say they “know” the lesson is boring. As useful as everyday observations often are, they can be misleading and are often misinterpreted. For instance, the teacher may have misinterpreted the reason for the students’ restlessness. The time and day, such as a warm Friday afternoon, might be the source of the students’ restlessness and not the dullness of the lesson. Even if the lesson is indeed boring to this teacher’s students, the teacher might conclude that the lesson is boring to students in general, when it might, in fact, be interesting to other students at other ability levels, with different backgrounds, and so on.
