Understanding the Connection Between Epistemic Beliefs and Internet Searching

Abstract

Within the context of exploring an ill-structured task using the Google search engine, this study examined (a) the connections between general epistemic beliefs and the complexity of learners' knowledge exploration processes (i.e., learning complexity) and (b) the role of activating learners' task-oriented epistemic beliefs (i.e., epistemic activation) in affecting their learning processes. Survey was used to collect participants' general epistemic beliefs, and direct analysis of participants' think-aloud protocols documenting their knowledge exploration processes was conducted to measure their learning complexity. Results revealed positive epistemologylearning relationships in the way that learners with complex epistemic beliefs are more likely to invest efforts in integrating knowledge, building flexible knowledge representations, evaluating information credibility, engaging in inquiry, and being learning-oriented during their ill-structured Internet search activities. Epistemic activation seemed to provide an opportunity for learners to contemplate varying advanced strategies to evaluate the quality of web information, trigger their efforts to search for alternative views during learning, and enhance their awareness of task complexity and subjectivity. In addition, learners with complex epistemic beliefs seemed to benefit more from epistemic activation in terms of using advanced strategies for web information evaluation. This research contributes to (a) theoretical understandings of epistemology in connection to learning complexity when learning Journal of Educational Computing Research 0(0) 1-39 ! The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navis open-ended and (b) pedagogical practices of using the epistemic activation strategy to promote deep learning in Internet-based learning environments.

The Role of Students’ Beliefs When Critically Reasoning From Multiple Contradictory Sources of Information in Performance Assessments

“…Well-developed and more advanced epistemic beliefs positively influenced the quality of students' information processing. Ulyshen et al (2015) provided one of the few studies specifically investigating the relation between general epistemic beliefs and Internet search behavior. Using participants' thinkaloud protocols they investigated the impact of students' task-related epistemic beliefs on their information processing.…”

Epistemic Processing When Adolescents Read Online: A Verbal Protocol Analysis of More and Less Successful Online Readers

“…In this sense, these readers are not very effective at epistemic processes such as examining the authority of information, analyzing internal and external features of sources, drawing evidence from their analysis to support their judgments, and undertaking further knowledge‐seeking actions to complement their judgments (Lankshear et al., ; Metzger & Flanagin, ). In contrast, readers who possess sophisticated epistemic beliefs are more likely to better handle the challenging task of reading that demands strategic thinking to select, evaluate, and use different sources of information (Kammerer & Gerjets, ; Ulyshen, Koehler, & Gao, ; Whitmire, ).…”

Internet-Specific Epistemic Beliefs in Medicine and Intention to Use Evidence-Based Online Medical Databases Among Health Care Professionals: Cross-sectional Survey

“…Additionally, epistemic beliefs are regarded as an influential factor in searching on the internet [24,25]. While solving ill-structured problems through web-based information searching, the activation of epistemic beliefs may help learners who possess complex epistemic beliefs to use advanced search strategies, evaluate information quality, and search for alternative views [24]. Research on epistemic beliefs has focused on its role in processing diverse and conflicting information on the internet [26][27][28].…”