Chapter 4: Design for Knowledge

This chapter was hard to grasp: teaching the structures and processes related to disciplinary knowledge. For most of us, we don't know the structures/processes to other content areas so it would be hard to discuss and to think about this abstractly. I appreciate the fact that the book calls the division of human knowledge somewhat artificial: humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences. I was surprised that the book didn't comment on the preferential treatment given to the hard and even social sciences compared to the humanities. Generally speaking, if you look at the amount stipend giving to a full time graduate student in each area, you will find that hard science students are compensated the best, where humanities are compensated the least. Clearly, this has to do with the perception of their relevance and usefulness to the rest of society: a doctor/pharmacist/scientist is more useful than a linguist/classicist/historian.