Combination of interventions can change students’ epistemological beliefs

This study is conducted in the fact that non-passer in the College Entrance Test (CET) may not be able to pass the Maritime Schools Assessment Program (MSAP) examination; thus, peer mentoring was utilized. The investigation focused on the performance, epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics among maritime transportation students. Thirty students that were selected randomly were gathered in the program and were divided into fifteen pairs. Each pair had an assigned mentor that was selected purposively.The students’ performance and attitudes towards mathematics were measured using a researchers’ made 50 item pre and posttest multiple choice questionnaire and a researchers’ made attitudes instrument respectively; pilot – tested, validated and reliability-tested. Schommer’s Epistemological Belief Questionnaire was used to assess their epistemological learning beliefs. Frequency count and means were the descriptive statistical tools and paired sample t-test and Pearson’s r set at .05 Alpha levels are the inferential statistical tools. Results showed “low” pre and “high” post mathematics performance. Simple knowledge, certainty of knowledge and omniscient authority are best possessed by the participants for the epistemological learning beliefs. Positive attitudes towards mathematics manifested in both pre and post attitudes of the participants. There is a significant difference between the pretest and posttest mathematics performance and between pre-attitudes and post attitudes towards mathematics of the participants. There is no significant relationship between mathematics performance, attitudes, and epistemological learning beliefs. Sustainability of the program, the conduct of similar studies, continuing training and re-training of student mentors and financial support to those who rendered their services as mentors are highly recommended. Keywords- Peer mentoring, mathematics performance, epistemological learning beliefs, attitudes, descriptive design, experimental design, Iloilo City, Philippines.

Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading beliefs on multiple text comprehension.Method. The participants were 476 university students from two different Spanish universities, and diverse studies (Humanities, Health Sciences, Architecture and Engineering). In a whole-class session, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EQEBI) and the Reader Belief Questionnaire were first administered. In the second part of the session participants completed the prior knowledge questionnaire and performed the multiple text comprehension task.Results. Using cluster analysis we identified two distinct beliefs profiles: sophisticated, in which the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated to more transactional and less transmissive reading beliefs; and naïve, in which the more naïve epistemological beliefs were associated to less transactional and more transmissive reading beliefs. Relationships were found between profiles and gender and domain of knowledge. In addition, after controlling prior knowledge, students with a more sophisticated epistemological and reading beliefs’ profile obtained a higher level of multiple text comprehension than those with a more naïve profile.Conclusion. Consistent with prior research, we may interpret that students who understand knowledge in a more sophisticated way tend to view reading less as a transmissive process and more transforming of knowledge; therefore, they get involved in a deeper comprehension of the different sources and this favours their ability to process information and make inferences – at an intra and inter textual level.

This study aims to investigate the relationships between 9th grade students’ epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning in different science domains (physics, chemistry, biology). A total of 462 students (male=247, female=215) participated in the study. Data were collected with the help of the questionnaires that measure students’ epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationships between students’ epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning in different science domains. The results revealed that there were positive and moderate relationships between students’ epistemological beliefs in “justification” and “development” dimensions and their higher-level conceptions of learning. However, these beliefs were weakly correlated or not correlated to the students’ lower-level conceptions of learning. Similarly, students’ epistemological beliefs in “source” and “certainty” dimensions were weakly associated or not associated with their conceptions of learning.

The students’ academic behaviours and academic performance differ with their epistemological beliefs. Different social-cultural and educational contexts inculcate differences in students’ epistemological beliefs. However, the impact of the nature of the academic programs on students’ epistemological beliefs is most obvious. The students of different disciplines can have different epistemological beliefs. These different epistemological beliefs differ in their impact on students’ academic performance and academic behaviour. Hence, the current study evaluated the interrelationships of various educational programs and epistemological beliefs and their importance in students’ academic performance. The volunteer university students provided data about their academic programs, epistemological beliefs, and academic performance. Researchers used the Generalized Structured Component Analysis approach to calculate the suitability of specified measurement and structural models. The impact of subjects of the soft field of study such as Behavioural Sciences, English Literature was negative on naive epistemological beliefs in knowledge structure and omniscient authority compared to subjects of the hard field of studies such as Mathematical, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences. The Business Sciences from the soft applied field of study had the least noticeable negative impact on naive epistemological beliefs compared to other subjects of pure soft and pure hard field of studies. Only, the belief in quick learning had a significant negative impact on students’ academic performance.

East Asian students in the West have been persistently perceived as lacking critical thinking skills, but research findings supporting this claim remain inconsistent. Some scholars argue that some East Asian students’ attitude towards criticality is restrained by their adherence to Confucian concepts, while others contend that certain belief systems in the culturally diverse East Asian region support the cultivation of criticality. This study investigates the relationship between East Asian learners’ educational trajectory, epistemological and cultural beliefs, and their critical thinking disposition. International East Asian students (n = 118) at UK universities completed a questionnaire via Qualtrics. Multiple regression analysis indicated that: 1) educational duration in the UK was a significant predictor of critical thinking disposition; 2) epistemological beliefs in simple knowledge, certain knowledge, omniscient authority, and quick learning significantly and negatively predicted overall critical thinking disposition; simple knowledge, certain knowledge, and omniscient authority were significant predictors of misconceptions in criticality, which can hinder the development of critical thinking; 3) Restrictive Confucianism significantly and negatively predicted confidence, misconception, and overall criticality disposition, whereas Benevolent Confucianism positively predicted confidence and valuing in criticality disposition. Additionally, 4) Taoism significantly predicted valuing in criticality, suggesting Taoist tenants like embracing contradiction, might be beneficial in cultivating criticality. These findings may have the potential to inform the development of culturally sensitive pedagogical practices, and contribute to the movement of education decolonization in the Western Anglo-Americano systems.

Student’s epistemological beliefs are important to the teacher’s teaching plan and construction. Various studies have highlighted that the regulatory role of students’ epistemological beliefs underpinnings their cognitive processing strategies, regulation of learning, learning approaches, learning orientations and conceptions of learning. As teachers, they should consider different efforts to measure epistemological beliefs which proposed general domain independent measures and specific domain dependent measures. This study is intended to highlight the process of preparing and validating the Urdu version of a domain dependent Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire for secondary school science students. Later, a confirmatory factor analysis was employed to examine the hypothesized dimensions of the translated Urdu version by using the Partial least squares approach of structural equation modelling. Twelve items of the translated version of Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire with adequate validity and reliability indices were loaded across three dimensions of students’ epistemological beliefs namely Belief in Knowledge Certainty, Belief in Knowledge Justification and Reasoning, and Belief in Omniscient Authority. This confirmation will implies the teachers upon epistemological belief of the student, what to expect and dimensions to consider in their classroom teaching and learning activities.

The authors construct Chinese college students’ epistemological beliefs questionnaire, which consists of six dimensions: certain knowledge, simple knowledge, acquisition of knowledge, ability to learn, speed of learning and the value of learning. The questionnaire has good reliability and validity. Using this questionnaire, based on the investigation of 1121 college students from eight different universities in China, this study aims to explore the developmental characteristics of Chinese students’ epistemological beliefs. Results show that the development of college students’ epistemological beliefs follows an increased pattern; the scores of the junior and senior students are higher than the freshman and sophomore, and the scores of the sophomore are the lowest in these four groups. College students’ development on the dimensions of knowledge beliefs is higher than that of learning beliefs. The investigation and interview suggest that Chinese college students’ epistemological beliefs experience three stages: the first stage is multiplicity, the second stage is primary relativism and the third stage is advanced relativism.

A questionnaire was administered to 231 teacher education students of a university in Hong Kong to examine their epistemological beliefs, conceptions of learning, and learning strategies. The three variables were measured respectively using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale (EBS) (Chan & Elliott, 2002), Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) (Purdie & Hattie, 2002) and Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) (Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001). Correlation and path analysis showed significant relations between epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning and learning strategies. The results suggest the significant roles of epistemological beliefs in learning, through their impact on and relations with the conceptions of learning and strategies adopted by the students. Implications were drawn with suggested ways for further research on their relationships and other metacognitive variables in learning such as achievement or motivation goals. The research findings would provide significant and valuable knowledge in this area and enable a better understanding of the nature and process of learning.

The present study investigated the relationship between pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs and perceptions of a constructivist learning environment. The Turkish version of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and Schommer’s Epistemological Belief Questionnaire were administered to 531 pre-service science teachers attending seven public universities in Turkey. For data analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20 program was used and correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the participants’ epistemological beliefs and perceptions of a constructivist learning environment. Also, descriptive analysis was conducted to determine their epistemological beliefs and perceptions of a constructivist learning environment. The results showed that the more sophisticated epistemological beliefs the participants have, the more constructivist learning environments they prefer, and positive/negative relationships were found among subscales of the two scales. Moreover, the results revealed that pre-service science teachers have relatively sophisticated epistemological beliefs, and generally prefer more constructivist learning environments. The implications were discussed.

The research questions addressed in this study were: what types of epistemological beliefs do elementary students have; what types of metacognition do elementary students have; and what are the relationships among students’ perceived characteristics of constructivist learning environment, metacognition, and epistemological beliefs. A total of 626 students enrolled in sixth, seventh, and eight grades of nine elementaryPUBLIC schools located in Ankara, Turkey constituted the participants of this study. Constructivist learning environment survey (CLES), Junior metacognitive awareness inventory (Jr. MAI), and Schommer epistemological belief questionnaire (EB) were administered to students. Factor Analysis of Jr. MAI revealed both knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition items were loaded into one factor. Confirmatory factor analysis of EB revealed a four factor structure namely innate ability, quick learning, omniscient authority, and certain knowledge. Regression analyses revealed that metacognition and omniscient authority were significant predictors of personal relevance dimension of CLES. Metacognition was found as the only predictor of the student negotiation. Innate ability and metacognition significantly contributed to uncertainty. This study revealed that the elementary students with different mastery levels hold different epistemological beliefs and multi-faceted nature of elementary school students’ metacognition was seemed to be supported with this study. It was found that metacognition contributed to model more than epistemological beliefs for all three dimensions of CLES.

In this study, we exploratively investigate the relation between students’ epistemological beliefs and their declarative knowledge about scientific explanations and their practical skills to explain psychological phenomena drawing on scientific theories before and after a training intervention using a person-centered approach. We theoretically derive profiles of epistemological beliefs that should be beneficial for constructing scientific explanations. We those having higher explanation skills show a profile of epistemological beliefs that is beneficial for explanations skills. Using a latent profile transition analysis and a sample with N = 108 students, we explore which profiles of epistemological beliefs, declarative knowledge about explanations, and explanation skills empirically emerge before and after an intervention that aimed and fostering students’ skills to construct scientific explanations. Before the intervention, two profiles emerged that differed in epistemological beliefs and explanation skills, but both did not in declarative knowledge about explanation. The intervention, in general, yielded a gain in declarative knowledge about explanations and explanation skills. After the intervention, again, two profiles emerged. However, these profiles did not differ in their epistemological beliefs but only in declarative knowledge about explanations and explanation skills. Thus, the intervention seems to level out the effects of epistemological beliefs. Additionally, the pattern of change in epistemological beliefs is consistent with theoretical expectations about which epistemological beliefs are beneficial for explanations. We discuss the results and their implications, as well as their limitations. Finally, we provide an outlook of using the person-oriented approach and this study’s type of intervention in the research on changing epistemological beliefs.

This study investigated the cultural differences of epistemological beliefs and moral reasoning between American and Chinese college students (N=452) recruited from three universities, Old Dominion University in the eastern United States, Luoyang Normal University in the central China and Central University for Nationalities in northern China. A series of factorial MANOVA was conducted to explore the influence of gender, ethnicity and nationality as the independent variables on epistemological beliefs measured with five EBI (Epistemological Beliefs Inventory) scores and moral reasoning measured with two DIT (Defining Issues Test) scores as dependent variables. No effects were found for gender and ethnicity on epistemological beliefs and moral reasoning. Significant differences were found between American college students and Chinese college students in the epistemological beliefs of simple knowledge, certain knowledge, omniscient authority and quick learning. Additionally, a significant, but small correlation between moral reasoning and epistemological beliefs was found in the American sample while no significant correlation was found between moral reasoning and epistemological beliefs in the Chinese group.

This study examined the relationship between pre-service teachers’ epistemological views and their assessment conceptions, as well as how epistemological beliefs and their components contribute to the variation in their assessment conceptions. Utilizing a quantitative descriptive correlational research design, data were collected from 197 pre-service teachers at Fitche College of Teacher Education in Ethiopia through the Epistemological Belief Questionnaire and Assessment Conception Questionnaire. The analysis involved correlation and multiple regression techniques. The findings revealed a significant association between epistemological beliefs and assessment conceptions with a strong correlation in the ‘omniscient authority’ and ‘simple knowledge’ sub-dimensions. However, the ‘quick learning’ sub-dimension exhibited a weaker relationship. Furthermore, pre-service teachers showed a high level of agreement with the concepts of improvement and school accountability, whereas agreement with the irrelevance of assessment was moderate, yet students’ accountability was not significantly related to their epistemological beliefs. Generally, the findings of the study uncovered a meaningful correlation between pre-service teachers’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of assessment. This study’s findings could highlight the need to incorporate progressive assessment concepts and advanced epistemological beliefs into educational programs such as teacher education to improve pre-service teachers’ professional beliefs and competencies that would have cascaded effects on the school teaching-learning.

Objective: The present study aimed to present a causal model of academic engagement based on school climate, epistemological beliefs, and problem-solving styles, with the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Methods and Materials: This study was of a correlational type and employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The statistical population included all high school students in Bushehr County during the 2022-2023 academic year, totaling 1,350 individuals. Based on Cochran's formula, a sample of 299 students was selected through cluster random sampling. Data were collected using the Academic Engagement Questionnaire by Reeve, the School Climate Questionnaire, the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire by Schommer, the Problem-Solving Styles Questionnaire by Cassidy and Long, and the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire by Jinks and Morgan. Data analysis was conducted using Pearson correlation, regression analysis, and path analysis methods. Findings: The research findings indicated that school climate has a direct effect on academic self-efficacy. Epistemological beliefs have a direct effect on academic self-efficacy. Constructive problem-solving styles do not have a significant effect on academic self-efficacy in high school students. Non-constructive problem-solving styles have a significant positive effect on academic self-efficacy in high school students. Academic self-efficacy has a direct effect on academic engagement. School climate has a direct effect on academic engagement. Epistemological beliefs have a direct effect on academic engagement. Constructive problem-solving styles have a significant effect on academic engagement in high school students. Non-constructive problem-solving styles do not have a significant positive effect on academic engagement in high school students. School climate indirectly affects academic engagement through the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Epistemological beliefs indirectly affect academic engagement through the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Constructive problem-solving styles do not have an indirect effect on academic engagement considering the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Non-constructive problem-solving styles have an indirect effect on academic engagement considering the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Conclusion: The study confirms that school climate, epistemological beliefs, and problem-solving styles significantly influence academic engagement, with academic self-efficacy playing a critical mediating role. These findings highlight the importance of fostering a positive school environment and developing students' self-efficacy and epistemological beliefs to enhance academic engagement and performance.

Purpose:This study was to explore the relationship between clinical performance examination (CPX) achievement and epistemological beliefs to investigate the potentials of epistemological beliefs in ill-structured medical problem solving tasks.Methods:We administered the epistemological beliefs questionnaire (EBQ) to fourth-year medical students and correlated the results with their CPX scores. The EBQ comprised 61 items reflecting five belief systems: certainty of knowledge, source of knowledge, rigidity of learning, ability to learn, and speed of knowledge acquisition. The CPX included scores for history taking, physical examination, and patient-physician interaction.Results:The higher epistemological beliefs group obtained significantly higher scores on the CPX with regard to history taking and patient-physician interaction. The epistemological beliefs scores on certainty of knowledge and source of knowledge were significantly positively correlated with patient-physician interaction. The epistemological beliefs scores for ability to learn were significantly positively correlated with those for history taking, physical examination, and patient-physician interaction.Conclusion:Students with more sophisticated and advanced epistemological beliefs stances used more comprehensive and varied approaches in the patient-physician interaction. Therefore, educational efforts that encourage discussions pertaining to epistemological views should be considered to improve clinical reasoning and problem-solving competence in the clinic setting.