Publisher's Synopsis
This guide explores the nature of knowledge and offers an entry to human and social studies for all students. It aims to help students in reading pathways into the textual worlds of university study, and draws on metaphors and analogies to help students think of learning in particular ways. The metaphors further highlight the nature of knowledge and the "rules" which need to be followed in becoming participants in this game of knowledge production.;The first section introduces students to metaphors for learning and a questioning approach which makes it possible to enter the world of learning through text. The second section focuses specifically on a story of knowledge which unravels for students the constructed and changing nature of knowledge. In particular, it looks at pre-understanding, different kinds and features of knowledge, open-ended problems, research and evaluating knowledge. The third section turns to what makes learning possible - that is, the desire, occasion and guides. Even though students have to accept that there are no final, definitive, singular truths, they also have to become familiar with the rules (be they all changeable) about what counts as knowledge and, therefore, about how to learn.;The concluding section focuses on the text and the reader. Being a student means entering and becoming part of the conversations of the textual world and the guide is deliberately intended to help students in this regard.
