Ontology vs. Coding Scheme vs. Epistemological Framing
One-page teaching handout for the onboarding guide. Use this before the full 35-minute reading.
Running example: A student says, "ChatGPT helped me think, but I still checked the answer because it might be making things up."
| Question | Ontology | Coding Scheme | Epistemological Framing |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is it? | A formal or semi-formal representation of shared objects and relations. | An analytic instrument for interpreting segments of data in a corpus. | A construct for explaining how participants orient to knowledge practices. |
| Reads the example as... | AI tool, student, claim, verification, uncertainty, checksAgainst. |
AI-trust-hedge, verification practice, responsible-student identity work. |
Sensemaking-with-verification: AI is a provisional epistemic partner, not an unquestioned authority. |
| Best output | RDF, OWL, SKOS, competency questions, reusable vocabulary. | Codebook, definitions, inclusion/exclusion rules, excerpts, memos. | Account of local orientation to evidence, authority, uncertainty, and action. |
| Validation | Logical consistency, competency question coverage, expert review, reuse. | Trustworthiness, inter-rater agreement when appropriate, audit trail, reflexivity. | Coherence across discourse, behavior, task context, and theoretical account. |
| Reviewer risk | Treating local interpretive categories as universal infrastructure. | Treating code assignment as mere annotation or ground-truth labeling. | Invoking "framing" abstractly without showing a concrete shift in orientation. |
10-Minute Skim Path
- §1: Dialectic and running example
- §5: Operational differences
- §6: Six common misconceptions
- §8: Coexistence design checklist
Rule of Thumb
- Use ontology to stabilize reusable epistemic objects.
- Use coding to preserve situated meaning-making.
- Use epistemological framing to explain how learners take up objects as knowledge practices.