Culture and Personal Epistemology: U.S. and Middle Eastern Students’ beliefs about Scientific Knowledge and Knowing

Middle Eastern (Omani) and Western (U.S.) students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing in the sciences were compared on four dimensions of personal epistemology proposed by Hofer and Pintrich ( Review of Educational Research (1997), 67 , 88–140). As predicted, given their experiences with comparatively traditional political and religious institutions, Omani more so than U.S. college students were more likely to accept scientific authorities as the basis of scientific truth. Furthermore, Omani men were more accepting of authorities than were Omani women, but there was no gender difference among U.S. students. Omani more than U.S. students also believed that knowledge in the sciences was simpler and more certain, which is consistent with comparisons between U.S. and Asian students (e.g., Qian & Pan, 2002, A comparision of epistemological beliefs and learning from science text between American and Chinese high school students. In B. K. Hofer & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal epistomology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 365–385), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum). Students in the two countries did not differ, however, in whether their beliefs were based on personal opinions versus systematic evidence. Suggestions for further research included directly assessing experiences with, and attitudes toward, authorities in academic and other areas of students’ lives.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43812/1/11218_2005_Article_1826.pd

Wanting to become PE teachers in Spain: connections between previous experiences and particular beliefs about school Physical Education and the development of professional teacher identities

Physical Education (PE) teachers have previous experiences that both shape their particular beliefs about the role and purpose of this school subject as well as their pedagogical practice. The present study aims to examine and deepen our knowledge of future Spanish PE teachers’ previous experiences of and beliefs about PE that condition their pedagogical practice and intentionality within this school subject. The data reported on in this paper were generated through questionnaires, life-history stories and semi-structured interviews with 24 initial teacher education students in the second year of a degree specialising in PE at a Spanish university. The data was analysed using content and narrative (thematic) analysis. The students, far from being tabula rasa, in their responses show how their previous socialisation period, their subjectivities and identities constitute particular beliefs about PE teaching. More specifically, the results reveal four key themes in the student teachers’ experiences and beliefs that represent four different factors influencing future PE teacher identities: (1) ‘Sport’; (2) ‘PE for health’; (3) ‘A focus on pedagogy’; and (4) ‘A critical orientation’. In conclusion, the study reaffirms the need for further reflection on how previous experiences and beliefs influence the development of professional teacher identities as part of initial teacher education in PE

Elementary School Students’ Epistemic Perspective and Learning Strategies in History

The present study explores possible relations between students’ epistemic perspective, learning strategies and text comprehension. In Study 1, seventy-nine sixth graders completed paper-and-pencil instruments to measure their epistemic perspective and learning strategies. Students’ epistemic perspective was assessed using the Livian problem (Kuhn, Iordanou, Pease, & Wirkala, 2008), which presented two contradicting accounts about the fictitious fifth Livian war and asked students questions regarding the certainty of their knowledge. Students were epistemically profiled as Absolutists, Multiplists and Evaluativists in their approaches to knowing. Students’ learning strategies were assessed through the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire – MSLQ − (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). In Study 2, twenty of the students who participated in Study 1 were individually interviewed to measure their learning strategies, where they were asked to read a text about Columbus’ uncovering of the New World. Results revealed that students who were profiled as Evaluativists showed greater self-efficacy, intrinsic value, use of cognitive strategies and self-regulation. In addition, students who were profiled as Evaluativists engaged in more effective learning strategies and exhibited better text comprehension compared to students who were profiled as Absolutists. In particular, students who exhibited an Evaluativist epistemic perspective engaged in the strategies of understanding vocabulary, summarizing and underlining, while students who exhibited an Absolutist epistemic perspective engaged more in repeating information and quick reading. Our findings show that a mature epistemic perspective is associated with effective usage of learning strategies and text comprehension

Understanding Middle Students' Beliefs About Knowledge and Learning Using a Multidimensional Paradigm

Recent theory (Schommer, 1990) suggests that personal epistemology is multidimensional. The multidimensional epistemology structure with middle school students was tested in this study. Over 1, 200 students in Grades 7 and 8 completed an epistemological belief questionnaire. Prior theory, developed with college students, suggested 4 epistemological belief factors: Ability to Learn, Structure of Knowledge, Speed of Learning, and Stability of Knowledge. Confirmatory factor analysis applied to a random half of the sample indicated that a 3-factor model was a good fit to the data. That model was replicated with the second half of the data. Follow-up regression analyses indicated that the more students believed in gradual learning and incremental ability to learn, the higher GPA they earned. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC