Ways of knowing/Sources of Human Knowledge:

• How do we solve problems?
• How do we find answers to questions?

• Activity:
Write down your primary sources of knowledge - based on past and current experience.

• Knowledge is developed within the context of a belief system held by a particular discipline. (L&H)
• Approaches to Generating Knowledge

 (Adapted from L&H)

• As a form of inference, intuituion resembles sensory perception
• As an extrasensory experience, intuition can be thought of as being independent of sensory input.
• Intuition depends on some familiarity with a subject area. A combination of past experience and knowledge are unconsciously used to come up with an insight or solution to a problem.
• Consider the intuitive leaps of artists and scientists like Beethoven and Einstein.
• Intuition plays a role in research. Although intuition is not a sufficient means to approach information in a research context, it can serve as a guiding and creative adjunct. Often it is an initial "hunch" or inference that leads investigators to examine anticipated relationships or a later hunch that opens new avenues for understanding research findings. (L&H)
• Intuitive thinking represents right brian thought - discerning meanings and manipulating patterns of behavior.
• In contrast, logical reasoning represents left brain thought - generating logical, linear processes. (Payne)
• Advantages: intuition can be the basis for theory development
• an individual can use intuition to see relationships between elements that no one else can see

 
• experience based knowledge forms the basis of clinical judgement

• Disadvantages: intuition cannot be relied upon to solve problems consistently
knowledge needs to be shared, and intuition is difficult to explain to others
(Payne)

• One example is a strategy in the prescription of pain medications. With 5 classes of NSAIDS, a physician may use a trial of one medicine from each class until one medication is found effective, or another form of pain control must be attempted because all of the trials of NSAIDS were unsuccessful.
• True trial-and-error is random, and not based on past experience or other knowedge that would prejudice the selection of which trial to use first or next.
• Advantages: trial-and-error may provide a systematic approach to solution of a problem if there is no reason to believe that any possible solution is better than another.

 
• Disadvantages: Inefficient. We seldom find ourselves in a situation in which we have no knowledge about one possible solution being better than another.

• It might take a long time to try each possible solution and to give each solution a fair chance of working.

 
• Generalizability is also questioned in trial-and-error experience, since what might work for one patient may not work for the next.

 
• A solution with broader applicability may have already been determined by someone else.

DEFINITION: TRADITION: Knowledge, doctrines, practices transmitted from one person to another over a period of time. The way it has always been done. (F&W)

• "When trial-and-error experiences lead to problem resolution, a ready source of known solutions becomes available and this forms the basis for tradition. As individuals become more invested in those solutions, the solutions take on an air of authority." (L&H)
• A solution to a problem may be used with relative success over and over again, and this practice can be contnued long enough that it almost has the force of law (tradition). This is especially true if "authority" suggests that this is the best solution to this problem.

• " Although it is important to be aware of what has existed for a long time (tradition) and listen to what those in authority are saying, knowledge derived from tradition and authority must be critically evaluated in light of other available data, for example, related literature and experts in the field. Research consumers can assess the accuracy of knowledge by questioning, identifying, and synthesizing all available data sources and noting the ones that clearly and logically support valid solutions." (L&H)
•  Advantages: A ready source of knowledge that is likely to be accepted by those you work with.  You know it worked before.
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• Disadvantages: This knowledge may not be current; may not be nationally accepted; may not be the best information.

• Science is concerned with interrelated principles, laws and theories.
• Science becomes the medium for systematically collecting, analyzing, and evaluating data.
• The scientific approach or research process involves the process of logical reasoning concerning the phenomena about which more information, or new knowledge, is sought through a systematically planned investigation.
• Two approaches to research: inductive and deductive. Inductive reasoning is associated with Qualitative Research or Naturalistic Inquiry; Deductive reasoning is associated with Quantitative Research or Experimental-type research.

• Deductions may not be verified if measurement methods are poor
•  A deduction that is based on a tentative premise (rather than sound theory) may result in a conclusion that is logically valid, yet unsound