Epistemic forms and Epistemic Games: Structures and Strategies to Guide Inquiry

1993/01/01 by Allan Collins, William D. Ferguson · 1 voice · 3 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Educational Strategies and Epistemologies #Information Systems Theories and Implementation

paper · doi:10.1207/s15326985ep2801_3

openalex publication_date 1993/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Epistemic forms are target structures that guide inquiry. Epistemic games are general purpose strategies for analyzing phenomena in order to fill out a particular epistemic form. The article describes in detail the rules and moves for one epistemic game and briefly describes a catalog of epistemic games that are used to analyze phenomena in terms of their structure, function, or processes.

Cited by

• Trade‐Offs Between Grounded and Abstract Representations: Evidence From Algebra Problem Solving
• Understanding the use of two integration methods on separable first order differential equations
• Allan M. Collins [wikipedia]

Discussions

• Collins, A., & Ferguson, W. (1993). Epistemic forms and Epistemic Games. Students never know what to make of this one but it's a classic that I still reach for occasionally when I'm doing design work [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]