An analysis of the nature of epistemological beliefs: Investigating factors affecting the epistemological development of south korean high school students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of epistemological beliefs about learning (or learning beliefs) by analyzing the type of factors involved in the epistemological development of South Korean high school students (N=455). Learning beliefs are implicit assumptions held by learners about the source and certainty of knowledge and the ways to obtain knowledge. Previous studies on the epistemological development of American high school students showed that American students learning beliefs are positively related with their age, amount of formal education, and academic achievement. Multiple regression analysis of this study, however, showed that no such relationships were identified from the present South Korean sample except between students beliefs and their academic achievement. In addition, the present study showed that South Korean students learning beliefs were related with their independent-self construal (individualistic self-view) but not with their interdependent self-construal (collectivistic self-view). These results reconfirmed the culture-specific nature of epistemological beliefs which was identified from previous comparative studies with South Korean and American college students (Youn, Kim, & Yang, 1999; Youn, 2000). The differences between the present results and previous findings with South Korean college students will be further discussed in terms of the sub-cultural variations between South Korean young generations.