Knowing More Than Can be Said: Michael Polanyi, Tacit Knowing, and New Pedagogical Strategies.

• Author / Creator

  Vandervinne, Sipko

• Tacit knowledge and tacit knowing are intricately bound with one another. They are the background to what is known explicitly. Polanyi’s ideas open a way to understanding how knowledge is known and questions the core of dualist thinking. These ideas conceptualize knowledge as constructed from meaning generated by sense data. Moreover, they form part of the mid-twentieth century chorus against logical empiricism arguing, instead, that what is less than certain can be known too. This thesis proceeds in six chapters. Besides outlining the argument of the thesis, chapter one lays out terminological definitions and methodology. Chapter two observes that the literature responding to Polanyi’s writings is a confusing jumble and argues for a return to Polanyian sources. The third chapter lays out the hypothesis that Polanyi’s embracing pair (tacit knowledge and tacit knowing) can best be understood in terms of aesthetic knowledge. The fourth chapter describes the interwoven nature of the tacit from a logical perspective that partly explains the confusion of the subsequent literature. Chapter five integrates the ideas of three representative theorists to argue that the tacit is learned, not only from the social milieu, but from the physical environment as well. The chapter six summary argues that the built environment can be intentionally designed so as to teach the tacit and that specific pedagogical strategies can be employed to interpret it.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Pedagogy
  • Aesthetics
  • Education
  • Tacit Knowledge

• Graduation date

  Spring 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-ept3-a229

• License

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