Synthesizing epistemological belief research: Tentative understandings and provocative confusions

Schommer, Marlene

doi:10.1007/bf02213418

Cited by 392 publications

(349 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This naïve, positivist labelled epistemology also contains a realist view, given which the world is intimately knowledgeable (in opposition to an idealist conception), so that scientific knowledge tells us about a truth: the world as it is. This positivist and realist vision is coherent with naïve [18] and traditionalist [4] epistemologies evaluated by other authors, in the sense that knowledge would be composed of information units which are progressively added, thus allowing knowledge progress. In fact, secondary teachers define teaching as a "maximum information transfer" and learning as an "every information absorption" [2,20].…”

Section: Theoretical Frame Of the Studysupporting

confidence: 75%

Positivism Against Constructivism: A Network Game to Learn Epistemology

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Abstract. As mentioned in French secondary school official texts, teaching science implies teaching scientific process. This poses the problem of how to teach epistemology, as traditional science teaching is mostly dogmatic and based on contents. Previous studies show that pupils, science students and teachers mostly own positivist and realist spontaneous conceptions of science and scientific discovery. Here, we present the evaluation of the didactic impact of a network game, Eleusis+Nobel, on third year biology students who aim at becoming teachers. This cards game, based on a Popperian epistemology, has been designed to reproduce the scientific discovery process in a community. In the limits of our study, results obtained with classical social psychology tools indicate that students who played this game specifically assimilated the subjective dimension of knowledge and the role of the community in their conception of science, on the contrary to negative control students, who did not play.

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Section: Theoretical Frame Of the Studysupporting

confidence: 75%

Positivism Against Constructivism: A Network Game to Learn Epistemology

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“…She developed additional dimensions relating to knowledge acquisition: control of knowledge acquisition and speed of knowledge acquisition. Schommer (1994) later proposed that students with simple epistemological beliefs viewed knowledge as finite and believed that knowledge was established at birth, where as those with more sophisticated epistemological beliefs embraced knowledge as complex and asserted that the "source of knowledge shifts from the simple transfer of knowledge from authority to process of rational thinking" (p. 295).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Preliminary Report Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Epistemic Beliefs Inventory

Welch¹,

Roy²

2012

EJSBS

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There is a growing body of evidence showing that personal epistemology is a critical component of student learning (Hofer, 2001). Developed by Schraw, Dunkle, and Bendixen (1995), and based on the earlier work on Schommer (1990), the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (EBI) was designed to measure five constructs concerning the nature of knowledge and the origins of individuals' abilities. The primary purpose of this study was to reevaluate the psychometric properties of the EBI as it continues to be used in the measurement of epistemic beliefs in a variety of educational and professional settings. Based upon the results of this study, we confirm previous research confirming the lack of stability of the EBI. In addition, a revised structure appears to be present in which only twenty-nine items of the thirty-two items of the EBI are retained. The resulting instrument contains five constructs, likely representing five independent dimensions of epistemic beliefs, although additional research needs to be conducted on this revised model.

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“…The results of the following studies therefore indicate that epistemological beliefs not only have an impact on but are also influenced by various variables. The relevant research reveals that epistemological beliefs have an impact on students' academic beliefs (Cano, 2005;Conley, Pintrich, Vekiri, & Harrison, 2004), their active participation in learning processes (Schommer, 1994), their tendency to take academic risks (Dweck & Leggett, 1988), their skills of comprehending the reading tasks (Ryan, 1984), their approaches to learning (Aypay, 2011a;Chan & Elliott, 2004;Phan, 2008), and their study strategies (Deryakulu, 2004;Holschuh, 1998;Schommer, 1998). The relevant literature also reveales that there are significant and meaningful relationships between epistemological beliefs and critical thinking (Başbay, 2013;Hofer, 2004), epistemological beliefs and motivation (Chen & Pajares, 2010;Kızılgüneş, Tekkaya, & Sungur, 2010;Ricco, Pierce, & Medinilla, 2010), epistemological beliefs and cultural differences (Chan & Elliott, 2002;Deryakulu & Büyüköztürk, 2002), and epistemological beliefs and the field of study (Deryakulu & Büyüköztürk, 2005;Hofer, 2000;Youn, 2000).…”

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confidence: 99%