Knowledge Construction Practices in Geographical and Environmental Research

Abstract

This article focuses on Knowledge construction in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. The main purpose of the paper is to examine how knowledge is constructed in texts produced   in these enquiry domains.  The paper depends on randomly selected published and unpublished materials such as thesis, dissertations and articles that depended on qualitative knowledge elicited from domain expert and secondary sources supported by quantitative methods from the field.  40 samples were randomly selected including master's theses, Ph.D. theses and published articles. The result showed that in 79.3% of the selected academic materials the knowledge had been constructed in the form of knowledge base format in heuristic form and knowledge modeling paradigm. It also indicated that the knowledge had been made in rules format espoused rule of thumb including parameters, variables, numerical values, tables, diagram, correlation coefficient, significance level, and fuzzy logic and certainty factors. Results also showed that 20.7% of the knowledge had been constructed in declarative forms and 57% used certainty factor (P). The paper further showed that the constructed knowledge had been translated and transformed in form of structure rules and models which can be graphically illustrated. The study concluded that constructed knowledge had been widely verified and validated, with   space for   disputed.