Do Epistemological Beliefs Predict Critical Thinking Dispositions?: A Cross-sectional Study with Turkish High School Students

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether high school students’ epistemological beliefs differ by gender and parents’ educational background variables and if their epistemological beliefs are significant predictors of critical thinking dispositions. The data for this study were collected with UF/EMI Critical Thinking Disposition Instrument and Epistemological Belief Scale and it was carried out with 178 high school students. This study revealed that while gender did not significantly affect students’ epistemological beliefs, parents’ educational background significantly affected their epistemological beliefs. Students who have parents with higher educational degrees had more sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Besides, students’ source, development, certainty, and justification scores significantly predicted their critical thinking dispositions and they together explained 24% of the total variance in students’ critical thinking dispositions. Students’ source, development, certainty, and justification scores were positively correlated to their critical thinking dispositions.