Epistemological Issues in Educational Data Mining

TL;DR

This paper explores philosophical questions about the nature and ethical guidelines of knowledge produced in Educational Data Mining, emphasizing ontological and deontological issues.

Contribution

It introduces two epistemological issues in EDM—ontological content and researcher principles—and offers guidelines for addressing these concerns.

Findings

Discussion of ontological nature of EDM knowledge

Analysis of ethical principles in EDM research

Proposed guidelines for epistemological clarity

Abstract

Educational Data Mining (EDM) shows interesting scientific results lately. However, little has been discussed about philosophical questions regarding the type of knowledge produced in this area. This paper aims to present two epistemological issues in EDM: (i) a question of ontological nature about the content of the knowledge obtained; and (ii) a question of deontological nature, about the guidelines and principles adopted by the researcher in education, to the detriment of the results of his own research. In the end, some considerations and guidelines are outlined as a result of the discussion of the issues raised.