Implementing an integrated epistemic framework: a multimodal active learning approach in translational neuroscience

The theoretical and practical aspects of science education are often uncoupled, resulting in decontextualized learning. To address this concern, the present work adopts the view that scientific discovery is a form of learning and that its hypothetico-deductive and transformative processes are essential for learning in scientific disciplines. This article presents an educational practice developed for a graduate-level translational neuroscience module, centered on the process of scientific inquiry through student-led, hypothesis-driven research design. The project adopts a multimodal framework, based on multiple pedagogical and philosophical concepts including transformative learning, threshold concepts, social constructivism, and the philosophies of Popper and Kuhn, to integrate content knowledge with epistemological development. By mirroring the logistics and logic of scientific discovery, and through iterative cycles of discussion, reflection, and critical evaluation, the students navigate both cognitive and affective domains and engage with complex and often troublesome topics in translational neuroscience.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Grounded in Popper's hypothetico-deductive logic, Kuhn's focus on anomalies, threshold concepts, and transformative learning, the Virtual Research Project (VRP) turns the scientific method into pedagogy.