Abstract
University students’ epistemic beliefs may have practical consequences for studying and success in higher education. Such beliefs constitute epistemic theories that may empirically manifest themselves as epistemic profiles. This study examined university students’ epistemic profiles and their relations to conceptions of learning, age, gender, discipline, and academic achievement. The participants were 1515 students from five faculties who completed questionnaires about epistemic beliefs, including a subsample who also completed a questionnaire that included conceptions of learning. We measured epistemic beliefs: reflective learning, collaborative knowledge-building, valuing metacognition, certain knowledge, and practical value. First, we analyzed structural validity by using confirmatory factor analysis. Second, we conducted latent profile analysis that revealed three epistemic profiles: Pragmatic (49%), reflective-collaborative (26%) and fact-oriented (25%). Then, we compared the conceptions of learning across the profiles as well as demographic information, credits, and grades. The profiles’ conceptions of learning varied: The reflective-collaborative group scored high on conception of learning named “construction of knowledge.” Its members were more likely to be females, teachers, and mature students, and they had the highest academic achievement. The fact-oriented group (mostly engineering/science students) scored highest on “intake of knowledge.” The pragmatic group scored highest on “use of knowledge:” During the second year, their academic achievement improved. In sum, the epistemic profiles were closely related to conceptions of learning and also associated with academic achievement.
Highlights
Students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing may manifest themselves as theories that color the way in which they approach various learning tasks, monitor their knowledge, seek information, and evaluate its relevance (Greene et al 2016; Lonka and Lindblom-Ylänne 1996; Schommer 1993; Vermunt 1998)
The first research question concerned the structural validity of the epistemic beliefs scales and we wanted to confirm the five belief scales of the instrument in this very population
Good model fit was defined as a value above .95 on the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), as a value below .05 on the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and as a value below .08 for the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR; see, for example, Hu and Bentler 1999)
Summary
Students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing may manifest themselves as theories that color the way in which they approach various learning tasks, monitor their knowledge, seek information, and evaluate its relevance (Greene et al 2016; Lonka and Lindblom-Ylänne 1996; Schommer 1993; Vermunt 1998) Such epistemic theories have been referred to as “personal epistemologies” (Hofer and Pintrich 1997; Hofer 2000, 2001). A new inclusive umbrella term epistemic cognition has been introduced (Hofer 2016) It is about beliefs or theories, and about how knowledge is defined, acquired, and used (e.g., Hofer 2016; Kitchener 1983; Kuhn 1999; Greene et al 2016). Epistemic beliefs refer to beliefs about knowledge and the processes of knowing that constitute more or less coherent epistemic theories (Hofer 2016; Muis et al 2016) as an essential part of epistemic cognition
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