Concept and Cognition

Outline of the course:

Concepts are the fundamental units of cognition. Metaphorically they are what cells are to biology.As educationists our main concern is to understand these units of cognition, both in terms of characterizing them, as well as studying how they are formed, changed, and developed in our mind.

Coginitive Goals of the Course: The objective of the course is to achieve scholarship in the area of study and at the end of the course should have a clear statement of the state-of-the-art of the subject.

An introduction to the technical terms used in each essay and background will be provided by the instructor prior to the reading and discussion of each essay.

This course is an introduction to some of the important essays from the point of view of understanding the nature of scientific concepts. The course will be in the form of a set of readings (listed below). As an instructor, I will guide the participants in understanding the matter, provide perspective, and explain the significance of the discourse for science education.

Each students who will register for the course will have to read and present the essays in rotation. Apart from presentations that would take place regularly by the students, the students are required to submit a term paper on a topic suitably decided keeping in mind their line of work and the subject matter of the course.