Predicting global and topic‐specific certainty beliefs: Domain‐specificity and the role of the academic environment

Abstract

Epistemological beliefs are subjective theories of the structure and acquisition of knowledge. The instruments used to measure epistemological beliefs in educational psychology (see Duell & Schommer-Aikins, 2001) typically consist of questionnaires tapping general, decontextualized beliefs about knowledge or knowledge acquisition in a specific field or in general. Using specific theories as stimuli, we determine the degree of topic-specificity of certainty beliefs as well as the association between certainty beliefs and the learning environment. Participants were 662 upper secondary school students (Study 1) and 211 college students (Study 2). A global instrument and a topic-specific instrument were used to collect responses to up to 10 stimulus theories. Factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and multi-level modelling were carried out. Students' topic-specific certainty beliefs varied markedly across the stimulus theories. Furthermore, students in different academic environments differed more strongly on global certainty beliefs than on topic-specific certainty beliefs, and global certainty beliefs were only loosely connected to topic-specific certainty beliefs. Researchers should critically assess the validity of decontextualized global questionnaires for assessing certainty beliefs. If possible, global measures should be complemented by topic-specific measures.