Voices in Education

Veteran leaders of education, as well as some new leaders, were directly asked by the author to respond to the following two questions. Their Reaction and Impact estimates are summarized below. The leader is identified at the end of the responses. I. a. What are the two most critical issues in K -12 education that should be addressed in the next five years? b. Why do you think they are the most critical

Epistemological Belief Congruency in Mathematics between Vocational Technology Students and Their Instructors

Three questions were addressed in this study. Is there evidence of epistemological beliefs congruency between students and their instructor? Do students’ epistemological beliefs, students’ epistemological congruence, or both predict mathematical anxiety? Do students’ epistemological beliefs, students’ epistemological congruence, or both predict mathematical performance? Over 200 vocational technology students and their instructors completed measures of beliefs about mathematical problems solving. The students also completed a measure of mathematical anxiety. Regressions indicated students’ epistemological beliefs about time and understanding predicted mathematical anxiety, whereas both student mathematical epistemological beliefs about time and their congruency scores predicted mathematical performance. The implications of these is that mathematical instructors may need to explicitly teach their mathematical epistemology and provide students with classroom experiences to deepen their appreciation of these epistemological underpinnings

Implications of Training in Incremental Theories of Intelligence for Undergraduate Statistics Students

This chapter documents the effects of training in incremental theories of intelligence on students in introductory statistics courses at a liberal arts university in the US. Incremental theories of intelligence examine the beliefs individuals hold of knowledge and how it is attained. An individual with an incremental theory of intelligence believes that intelligence can be developed. The research examined differences by gender in mastery of statistics and attitudes toward statistics for students who received growth mind-set training. A pre-test, post-test design utilised the Students’ Attitudes Toward Statistics© instrument and the Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in a first Statistics course. An ANCOVA revealed that females gained more than males on their value of statistics (F(1, 63) 9.40, MSE 3.79, p .003, η2 P 0.134) and decreased less for effort expended to learn statistics (F(1, 63) 4.41, MSE 4.07, p .040, η2 P 0.067). Females also gained mastery of statistical concepts at a greater rate (F(1, 63) 5.30, MSE 0.06, p .025, η2 P 0.080) indicating a possible path to alleviate the under-representation of females in STEM

Explanatory analogies can help children acquire information from expository text

Includes bibliographic references (p. 11-13

The effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension

In the last two decades educators and researchers have evolved the idea that beliefs about the nature of knowledge, or epistemological beliefs, may provide a partial explanation for why some students fail to integrate knowledge (Anderson & Pearson, 1984b), have inflexible criteria for comprehension monitoring (Yussen, 1985), or oversimplify information (Spiro, Vispoel, Schmitz, Samarapungavan, & Boerger, 1987). The purpose of this research was to these ideas.The overall question to be addressed by this research is "Do students' epistemological beliefs affect their comprehension?" A questionnaire designed to identify epistemological beliefs was administered to 266 undergraduates. Verbal ability, prior knowledge and demographic characteristics were also assessed. Then, a group of these students ($N$ = 86) read a passage on a topic in either psychology or nutrition. Next, students were asked to imagine that they were the author of the passage and to write a concluding paragraph. Then, they assessed their understanding of the passage. Finally, a multiple choice test was administered to test specific passage information.Factor analysis of the questionnaire resulted in four factors named as follows: (I) The Ability to Learn is Innate, (II) Knowledge is Discrete and Unambiguous, (III) Learning is Quick or Not-At-All, and (IV) Knowledge is Certain. Written conclusions were coded for adequate reflection of complexity and uncertainty. The effect of epistemological beliefs on the nature of conclusions drawn was tested by first regressing comprehension measures on verbal ability, prior knowledge, and sex; and then, allowing epistemological factors to compete for entry.Epistemological factors predicted interpretation, comprehension, and comprehension assessment. The more students believe Learning is Quick or Not-At-All, the more likely they are to write oversimplified conclusions. The more students believe Knowledge is Certain, the more likely they will interpret inconclusive information as certain. The more students believe Learning is Quick or Not-At-All, the more likely they are to perform poorly on typical comprehension measures and inaccurately assess their comprehension.These results suggest that students' epistemological beliefs can be described as a complex system that affects comprehension. These effects are generalizable across two domains and are evidenced beyond the effects of factors traditionally known to influence comprehension.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

Creencias epistemológicas de dominio específico y general. Efectos sobre la habilidad matemática

In order to understand how epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge and learning) influence mathematical problem solving, over 700 college students completed a domain general and a domain specific (mathematical problem-solving) beliefs questionnaire. In addition, they completed two mathematical tasks, one that assessed cognitive depth and the other problem solving. Mathematical and general epistemological belief factors emerged from a single exploratory factor analysis. Furthermore, students with high mathematical background showed consistency between domain general and domain specific epistemological beliefs, whereas, students with less mathematical background were significantly different between the two levels of belief specificity. Comparisons among path analyses revealed indirect effects of general epistemological beliefs and direct effects of domain specific epistemological beliefs on mathematical performance. Para entender cómo influyen las creencias epistemológicas (creencias acerca del conocimiento y del aprendizaje) sobre la resolución de problemas matemáticos, se aplicó un cuestionario sobre las creencias de ámbito general y ámbito específico (resolución de problemas matemáticos) a más de 700 estudiantes universitarios. Asimismo, los participantes llevaron a cabo dos tareas matemáticas: una que evaluaba la profundidad cognitiva, y otra sobre resolución de problemas. Con un solo análisis factorial exploratorio se extrajeron dos factores, uno sobre creencias epistemológicas y otro matemático. Además, aquellos estudiantes con altos conocimientos previos matemáticos mostraron consistencia entre las creencias epistemológicas de ámbito general y de ámbito específico. En cambio, los estudiantes con menos conocimientos previos matemáticos fueron significativamente diferentes en los dos niveles de especificidad de las creencias. Las comparaciones llevadas a cabo entre los path analyses mostraron efectos indirectos de las creencias epistemológicas generales y efectos directos de las creencias epistemológicas de ámbito específico sobre el rendimiento matemático

Creencias epistemológicas de dominio específico y general. Efectos sobre la habilidad matemática

In order to understand how epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge and learning) influence mathematical problem solving, over 700 college students completed a domain general and a domain specific (mathematical problem-solving) beliefs questionnaire. In addition, they completed two mathematical tasks, one that assessed cognitive depth and the other problem solving. Mathematical and general epistemological belief factors emerged from a single exploratory factor analysis. Furthermore, students with high mathematical background showed consistency between domain general and domain specific epistemological beliefs, whereas, students with less mathematical background were significantly different between the two levels of belief specificity. Comparisons among path analyses revealed indirect effects of general epistemological beliefs and direct effects of domain specific epistemological beliefs on mathematical performance. Para entender cómo influyen las creencias epistemológicas (creencias acerca del conocimiento y del aprendizaje) sobre la resolución de problemas matemáticos, se aplicó un cuestionario sobre las creencias de ámbito general y ámbito específico (resolución de problemas matemáticos) a más de 700 estudiantes universitarios. Asimismo, los participantes llevaron a cabo dos tareas matemáticas: una que evaluaba la profundidad cognitiva, y otra sobre resolución de problemas. Con un solo análisis factorial exploratorio se extrajeron dos factores, uno sobre creencias epistemológicas y otro matemático. Además, aquellos estudiantes con altos conocimientos previos matemáticos mostraron consistencia entre las creencias epistemológicas de ámbito general y de ámbito específico. En cambio, los estudiantes con menos conocimientos previos matemáticos fueron significativamente diferentes en los dos niveles de especificidad de las creencias. Las comparaciones llevadas a cabo entre los path analyses mostraron efectos indirectos de las creencias epistemológicas generales y efectos directos de las creencias epistemológicas de ámbito específico sobre el rendimiento matemático