Advances in Personal Epistemology in the Asia-Pacific: A Content and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide an overall picture of research on personal epistemology in learning and teaching, and to identify critical trends for future research, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. A total of 211 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in the Web of Science between 1993 and 2020 were analyzed using content analysis and bibliometric techniques. TheVOSviewer software was used for analysis and visualization. The main findings of the review indicated: (1) the research on personal epistemology in learning and teaching is a fast-growing area that has proliferated since 2010; (2) the studies were mainly focused on the science-related domain and the information and communication technologies domain; (3) the most studied populations were undergraduate students, upper secondary students, pre-service teachers, and in-service teachers; (4) the most published and cited countries/areas in the Asia-Pacific region were Taiwan, China/Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea; and (5) the most published and influential (by citations and co-citations) journals specialize in science education and educational technology. In addition, the most prominent research topics and four specific research lines in this research area were identified, including (1) the scientific epistemic beliefs among secondary students and their relations to science education and constructivism-oriented learning environments; (2) the influence of students’ scientific epistemological beliefs on their online searching behaviors and strategies related to socio-scientific issues; (3) the relations between epistemic beliefs, conceptions of teaching/learning, and approaches to learning among pre-service teachers; and (4) the nature and change of students’ epistemological beliefs in computer-supported collaborative knowledge-building environments. Furthermore, the significance of this research area and its implications for the post-COVID-19 era are explored. Based on this review, implications for teaching and learning are discussed, and research directions are recommended.