Disentangling the process of epistemic change: The role of epistemic volition

Abstract

Background. Many interventions on epistemic beliefs (i.e., individual beliefs about knowledge and knowing) are based on Bendixen and Rule's Integrative Model for Personal Epistemology Development. Empirically, however, the model is still insufficiently validated. This is especially true for its epistemic volition componenta will or desire to actively change one's beliefs. Aims. To experimentally scrutinize the role of epistemic volition, we investigated (incremental) effects on epistemic change of an epistemic volition intervention. Sample. 412 psychology students enrolled at German universities completed the study. Methods. We employed a randomized pre-post design with three experimental groups that differed in the administered epistemic volition and resolvable controversies interventions. The purpose of the latter was to initiate an epistemic change process, thereby laying the foundation for the epistemic volition intervention. Both data collection and interventions were conducted online. In addition to self-report measures, we applied a complementary source evaluation task to analyse epistemic change. Results. Even though we found small-to medium-sized changes in epistemic beliefs, these changes did not differ between experimental conditions. Exploratory analyses suggested, however, that source evaluation task performance might have been promoted by the epistemic volition intervention and thatacross experimental groupsmanipulation check measures on both interventions interacted positively. Conclusion. Ultimately, we failed to separate the effects that our epistemic volition intervention had on epistemic change from these of the resolvable controversies intervention. Nonetheless, our study makes some strong contributions toand interconnectsthe growing bodies of research on epistemic change and multiple source use. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Mechanisms of Epistemic Change: The Roles of Reflection and Social Interaction

“…For their inquiry, students were presented with four fictitious search engine results pages. According to Kerwer et al (2021), "each of these four outputs contained four fictitious results-two high-quality and two low-quality sites, while the valence (i.e., the supposed direction of the relationship-achievement motivation increases or decreases the risk of heart diseases) differs within each pair (e.g., within high quality sites). For each output, subjects chose which site they would like to inspect in more detail during a later stage of the study" (p. 12).…”

“…Intervention components for doubt and volition were identical to those employed by Kerwer et al (2021), and were administered in their computer-based versions (see Kerwer & Rosman, 2020). All intervention materials were specifically tailored to psychology students and revolved around a psychological topic (gender stereotyping in schools).…”

Registered Reports in Special Education: Introduction to the Special Series

“…“Disentangling the process of epistemic change: The role of epistemic volition” (Kerwer et al, 2020; in British Journal of Educational Psychology )…”

Psychometric properties of the changing epistemic beliefs questionnaire in Iraqi nursing students

“…Moreover, people's beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning are of effect on variables such as academic performance, new information processing methods, their level of understanding, source of control, strategies used in the study, higher order thinking, self-regulatory processes, approaches of problem solving and the time and effort they spend for learning (9-14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19). In particular, researches on the intertwined relationship between the use of multiple sources and the mental processes associated with epistemic beliefs have been very fruitful in recent decades (20,21,22,23,24).…”

“…Ferguson et al (2013) found that the data have satisfactory psychometric properties, and factor analysis confirmed these three justification dimensions in students from other countries (42). Some researchers have also used qualitative methods to examine beliefs and epistemicchange (24).…”