Epistemology and educational sciences: classic epistemological concepts in the construction of dissertations

Abstract

This paper aims to address a training experience in the area of education related to classic epistemological concepts, that is, related to the production and legitimation of scientific knowledge. It refers to the extracurricular discipline "Logic and Methodology of Social Sciences" taught in the Postgraduate Program in Education of Unochapecó at the beginning of 2020. Most of the participants were master's students in the Stricto Sensu Postgraduate Program in Education of Unochapecó, but there were also participants from other stricto sensu graduate programs of the institution, such as Health Sciences, as well as students from other universities in the region. The course was intended to be original in the sense that instead of focusing on theoretical aspects and typical discussions of epistemology, it directed attention to the practical applications of these ideas in the construction of a master's thesis. This paper describes that experience, exposes the pedagogical strategy used to achieve the objective of the course and evaluates its results. Thus, the article will begin with a description of its theoretical-methodological framework, then it will present the selected epistemological concepts with a focus on their usefulness for the construction of the thesis and in the partial evaluations carried out by the students and, finally, the definitive results will be presented.