Assessing Teachers’ Epistemological and Ontological Worldviews

Abstract

This chapter focuses on issues surrounding the assessment of teachers’ epistemological and ontological beliefs. Epistemology is the study of beliefs about the origin and acquisition of knowledge. Ontology is the study of beliefs about the nature of reality. Previous research has focused primarily on epistemological beliefs using self-report Likert scales. We discuss several limitations of this approach, including lack of agreement about the dimensionality of epistemological beliefs. Few studies have examined teachers’ ontological beliefs, nor have any studies investigated the joint contribution of epistemological and ontological beliefs. The present chapter proposes an integrated, holistic system in which teachers rate themselves using the two-dimensional scale shown in Fig. 2.1. Teachers are asked to situate their epistemological and ontological beliefs on scales ranging from realist to relativist perspectives (see Instructions). We report on the feasibility of using the two-dimensional system, including potential strengths and weaknesses of the system, and directions for future research.