Profiling individual differences in undergraduates’ epistemological beliefs: gender, domain and grade differences (original) (raw)
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Epistemological beliefs are those concerning the structure or the nature of knowledge and knowing, including definitions of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, how knowledge is evaluated, and reflects the viewpoint of the individual about what and how knowledge can be acquired and the degree of certainty. The present study sought answers to the following questions: What are the overall epistemological beliefs of undergraduate students? Do epistemological beliefs of undergraduate students differ by gender? Do epistemological beliefs of undergraduate students differ by academic level? Epistemological beliefs scale comprising 62 items measuring five components of beliefs (i.e. Quick Learning, knowledge, Certain
An Investigation on Epistemological Beliefs of University Students
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012
The purpose of this research is to investigate epistemological belief in university students in terms of several variables such as faculty type, department, class level, family education statues, world views, newspaper types, reading habits. The sample of research consists of 321 university students several departments at two faculty of Usak university. In study, findings show that there are significance differences between epistemological beliefs of university students and their faculties, departments, family education statues, religiousity levels, and reading book habits.
The aim of this study is to investigate the epistemological beliefs of university students according to their genders, classes, fields of Study, academic success and learning styles. This study was carried out with 246 females and 242 males, in total 488 university students. The data was collected through Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ), Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) and Personal Information Form. According to the findings, the epistemological beliefs do not differ depending on the gender of the students. According to the grade levels, it was found out that two beliefs, one of which is that “Learning depends on the effort” and the other one is that “There is one unchanging truth”, differ. However; the belief concerning that “learning depends on ability” does not differ. It was seen that the common interaction between the gender and the grade level did not differ significantly in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that “learning depends on effort” and of the beliefs concerning that “learning depends on ability; whereas it differs meaningfully in the sub-dimension of the beliefs that “There is one unchanging truth”. Results showed that the males in the second grade believed that there is more than one unchanging truth. It was realized that the epistemological beliefs of the students differ according to their fields of study; however, they do not differ according to the common effect of the academic success and the field of Study. It was understood that the students from the field of social sciences in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that “learning depends on effort”; the students from the field of health in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that “learning depends on ability”; the students from the field of science-techniques were more developed/mature in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that “There is one unchanging truth”. It was determined that a great majority of university students have “Assimilating” and “Converging” learning styles. It was seen that there is not a meaningful difference in the sub-dimension of the beliefs concerning that “learning depends on effort” in terms of different learning styles. On the other hand, it was realized that there is a meaningful difference in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that “learning depends on ability” and of the beliefs that “There is one unchanging truth” in favour of the students who have “Diverging” learning styles. It was suggested for the further studies to investigate the epistemological beliefs of the university instructors and the personal characteristics (locus of control, learned helplessness) of the students.
Keywords It was determined that epistemological beliefs showed a significant difference by gender in some studies conducted in Turkey using Schommers' Epistemological Beliefs Model while there was no significant difference in some other studies. Similarly, in some studies, epistemological beliefs showed a significant difference by academic success; however, some studies did not show a significant difference. For this reason, the aim of this research is to determine whether epistemological beliefs show a significant difference by gender and also to find out the relationship between epistemological beliefs and academic success through meta-analysis. Therefore, it is expected that this study will help overcome this conflict in the field. For this purpose, 37 studies that were carried out in Turkey between the years 2005-2017 and meet the criteria for inclusion were analyzed by meta-analysis method. 36 studies were included to determine whether epistemological beliefs differ significantly by gender and 7 studies were used to determine the relationship of epistemological beliefs to academic success. Cohen's d was employed as the effect size index to examine epistemological beliefs by gender and Pearson's r was used to reveal relationship of epistemological beliefs with the academic success. Subgroup analysis was performed to determine the relationship of the epistemological belief sub-factors with the academic success and also whether there was a significant difference according to gender. The effect sizes calculated for gender and success were combined according to the random effects model since the studies were collected from the literature. As a result of the combination, the overall effect size (d=-0.052) calculated for gender was "weak" in favor of men; however, it showed a significant effect (p<.05). This result indicates that men's epistemological belief total scores are higher than women; therefore, women's epistemological beliefs are more developed than men. It was found in subgroup analysis that women's beliefs that learning depends on effort and ability are more developed than men. The overall effect size calculated for success is positive and "low" (r=0.056); but not significant (p>.05). In subgroup Epistemological beliefs Gender Academic success Meta-analysis Subgroup analysis Article Info
The Investigation of the Epistemological Beliefs of University
2012
The aim of this study is to investigate the epistemological beliefs of university students according to their genders, classes, fields of Study, academic success and learning styles. This study was carried out with 246 females and 242 males, in total 488 university students. The data was collected through Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ), Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) and Personal Information Form. According to the findings, the epistemological beliefs do not differ depending on the gender of the students. According to the grade levels, it was found out that two beliefs, one of which is that "Learning depends on the effort" and the other one is that "There is one unchanging truth", differ. However; the belief concerning that "learning depends on ability" does not differ. It was seen that the common interaction between the gender and the grade level did not differ significantly in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on effort" and of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on ability; whereas it differs meaningfully in the sub-dimension of the beliefs that "There is one unchanging truth". Results showed that the males in the second grade believed that there is more than one unchanging truth. It was realized that the epistemological beliefs of the students differ according to their fields of study; however, they do not differ according to the common effect of the academic success and the field of Study. It was understood that the students from the field of social sciences in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "learning depends on effort"; the students from the field of health in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "learning depends on ability"; the students from the field of science-techniques were more developed/mature in the sub-dimension of the belief concerning that "There is one unchanging truth". It was determined that a great majority of university students have "Assimilating" and "Converging" learning styles. It was seen that there is not a meaningful difference in the sub-dimension of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on effort" in terms of different learning styles. On the other hand, it was realized that there is a meaningful difference in the sub-dimensions of the beliefs concerning that "learning depends on ability" and of the beliefs that "There is one unchanging truth" in favour of the students who have "Diverging" learning styles. It was suggested for the further studies to investigate the epistemological beliefs of the university instructors and the personal characteristics (locus of control, learned helplessness) of the students.
A Comparative Study on Epistemological Beliefs Among Adolescent's Students
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. Epistemological Beliefs are learner's personal philosophy concerning acquisition of knowledge, which can change over time depending upon one's personal life experiences. In these days and age, obstacles to reaching further knowledge have been removed by means of developments in information and communication technologies which have also promoted contemporary themes and content. Due to these developments people can now access any information at any time using these online media tools. One of the most important factors in achieving such accumulated knowledge is epistemological beliefs. A study was conducted in order to study the attitude of epistemological beliefs in terms of gender and family structure among students of secondary and higher secondary schools. The study consisted of 120 students out of which 64 were females and 56 were males. The present study tries to understand the change that has occurred among students in regards to their epistemological beliefs in the current era.
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Epistemological beliefs are beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different educational programs (English teacher education, computer technology teacher education, and food technology) in terms of epistemological beliefs and to reveal the epistemological beliefs of fresh graduates studying these programs in Turkey and from different educational backgrounds. The interview questions used in this study focused on the source of knowledge, nature of knowledge, and elements in acquiring knowledge. The results revealed that prospective English teachers had relatively sophisticated ideas and the prospective food technologists had relatively naive ideas on each dimension of epistemological beliefs. Computer technology teachers had medium epistemological beliefs. This could be because English teacher education programs focus more on the students' epistemological beliefs, whereas food technologist programs focus more on the subject r...
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The purpose of this study was to determine if the students' epistemological beliefs is a significant predictor for their final physics grades in introductory physics courses and to compare the epistemological beliefs of the students from two different institutions, Woodbury University, USA and SKR College for women, Andhra University, India. The study involved the analysis of students' course work for final grades, and pre and post interviews to elicit their epistemological beliefs on the structure of scientific knowledge, nature of knowing and learning, real-life applicability, evolving knowledge, and source of ability to learn. Statistical analysis indicated that there was strong correlation between the epistemological beliefs and the final physics grades. The regression analysis suggested an equation with epistemological beliefs as a predictor variable for the final physics grades. All the components of the epistemological beliefs evenly contributed to the final physics grades and the components evenly improved during the courses. The comparison between the students of SKR College, India and Woodbury University, USA suggests that the dependence of the final physics grades on the epistemological beliefs may not be influenced by the cultures. Independent samples t-test between epistemological belief scores of Woodbury University and SKR College students at the beginning and at the end of the course work indicated that Woodbury students had significantly higher epistemological beliefs. Paired samples t-test indicated that epistemological beliefs improved by the end of the course at both the institutions. Resumen El propósito de este studio fue determinar si las creencias epistemológicas de los estudiantes es un factor predictivo importante para sus calificaciones finales de Física en los cursos introductorios de Física y para comparar las creencias epistemológicas de los estudiantes de dos instituciones diferentes, Universidad Woodbury, EE.UU y el Colegio para mujeres SKR, Universidad de Andhra, India. El estudio incluyó el análisis del trabajo de curso de los alumnos de los grados finales, y las pre y post entrevistas para conocer sus creencias epistemológicas sobre la estructura del conocimiento científico, la naturaleza del conocimiento y el aprendizaje, la aplicabilidad en la vida-real, el conocimieto en evolución y el origen de la capacidad para aprender. El análisis estadístico indicó que no había correlación entre las creencias epistemológicas y las calificaciones finales de Física. El análisis de regresión sugiere una ecuación con creencias epistemológicas como una variable de predicción para lo grados finales de Física. Todos los componentes de las creencias epistemológicas contribuyeron uniformemente a los grados finales de Física y los componentes cada uno mejorados durante los cursos. La comparación entre los estudiantes del Colegio SKR de la India y los de la Universidad Woodbury de EE.UU sugieren que la dependencia de las calificaciones finales de Física en las creencias epistemológicas no pueden ser influienciadas por las culturas. Muestras independientes t-test entre las puntuaciones de las creencias epistemológicas de la Universidad de Woodbury y los estudiantes del Colegio SKR en el inicio y al final del trabajo de curso indicaron que los estudiantes de Woodbury fueron significativamente más altos en las creencias epistomológicas. Muestras pareadas t-test indicaron que las creencias epistemológicas mejoraron al final del curso en las instituciones Palabras clave: Creencias epistemológicas, Influencia de las creencias epistemológicas enlas calificaciones, Comparación internacional de las creencias epistemológicas.