Changes in epistemological beliefs in elementary science students (original) (raw)
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Epistemic Beliefs and Achievement Motivation in Early Adolescence
The Journal of Early Adolescence, 2010
This study seeks to establish the relevance of middle school students' naïve beliefs about knowledge and learning in science to their achievement motivation in this domain. A predominantly Hispanic and lower-income sample of 459 middle school students (sixth through eighth grades) completed measures of epistemic beliefs along with several measures of motivation. Results indicated that a belief that scientific knowledge develops and that justification is necessary to valid knowledge in science were positively related to mastery goals, task value, and self-efficacy. Epistemic beliefs were also found to predict science grades over and above the contributions of motivational factors. Surprisingly, an uncritical acceptance of authority figures and a belief in scientific knowledge as certain were more typical of students who adopted motivational states (e.g., mastery goals) previously found to be supportive of learning. The latter findings may be unique to early adolescence within the ethnic and socioeconomic status parameters of the present sample.
2018
Much of the educational research that has investigated the attitudes of pre-service elementary educators towards science has seemed to show that their attitudes are negative towards science. Research also indicates that factors of gender, perceived competence, anxiety, perceived relation to their lives, and epistemological beliefs are related to pre-service elementary educators’ attitudes towards science. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between epistemological beliefs of undergraduate elementary education majors at a large, private, faithbased university in the southeastern United States and their attitudes towards science. Schraw’s Epistemological Beliefs Inventory (EBI) (Schraw, Bendixen, & Dunkle, 2002) was used to measure the epistemological beliefs of undergraduate elementary education majors. Cobern’s Thinking About Science Survey Instrument-v2 (TSSI-v2) (Cobern, 2005) was used to measure attitudes toward science. A random convenience sample of res...
Measurement of Epistemological Beliefs and Learning Strategies of Elementary School Children
Knowing, Knowledge and Beliefs, 2008
Research about epistemological beliefs and learning strategies is a steadily growing area in educational psychology and in the field of education. Subjects in most of the published studies are adults or teenagers, only a few studies deal with children or even elementary school children. Some experts doubt if children have epistemological beliefs, others question if they have the competence to talk about abstract concepts like beliefs about knowledge and knowing or learning strategies. In addition measurement issues are far from being resolved. In this chapter we first give a short overview of existing studies about epistemological beliefs and learning strategies in elementary school children. We look at the connection between epistemological beliefs and learning strategies and propose that epistemological beliefs and learning strategies are closely related. In another step we review methodological issues. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of the used measurements? Merits and shortcomings are discussed. We show that research on epistemological beliefs of children may benefit from the methodological discussion in the field of learning strategies and self-regulated learning. We address developmental prerequisites and methodological problems concerning research in this age group. Finally, we discuss the relevance of different measurements for future research with young children. 5.1 Measurement of Epistemological Beliefs Interviews and questionnaire measures are the most widespread methods to get information about epistemological beliefs of individuals. Looking back at early investigations, it is obvious, that a combination of both methods was quite popular from the very beginning of research in this field.
2009
There were two focuses in this study. The first one was to investigate the relationship among science achievement, metacognition, and epistemological beliefs for both 4th and 5th grade and 6th through 8th grade students. The second focus was to explore the relationships among gender, socioeconomic status (SES), metacognition, and epistemological beliefs. Altogether 941 elementary students participated in this study. For 4th and 5th grade students, knowledge of cognition, regulation of cognition, and quick learning contributed to science achievement. For 6th through 8th grade students, knowledge of cognition, regulation of cognition, innate ability, and quick learning contributed to science achievement. For both group of students, while metacognition was related both to gender and SES, epistemological beliefs were mostly related to gender.
Students' Epistemological Beliefs About Science: The Impact of School Science Experience
The science epistemological beliefs of students have been found to play an important role in determining their learning orientations towards science. Conley, Pintrich, Vekiri, & Harrison (2004) developed a measure to examine the epistemology beliefs of students about science. The measure encompasses four dimensions about scientific knowledge: source, certainty, development and justification. The purpose of this study was to look at the reliability of this measure in the Singapore context and to find out the epistemological beliefs of Singapore students about science. The findings showed that the four scales have relatively good reliability in term of internal consistency. The alpha-coefficient of the scales ranged from .65 to .84. The scale reliability obtained with the Singapore sample is comparable to that obtained by Conley et al. (2004). With respect to the epistemological beliefs of students the mean scores on all the scales were above 4.5 on a 6-point scale. This indicates tha...
1995
A study examined the relationship between two variable sets: (1) epistemological beliefs (Quick Learning, Simple-Certain Knowledge, and Innate Ability) and performance goals; and (2) conceptual understanding and application reasoning in conceptual change learning. In addition, effects of different kinds of prior knowledge on conceptual change learning were investigated. Subjects were 95 eleventh-and twelfth-grade students enrolled in science classes at an inner-city public high school in New York City. Results from repeated measures ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) indicated that refutational text was effective in facilitating conceptual change learning. Results from canonical correlation analyses demonstrated that beliefs about innate ability contributed the most to conceptual change learning, whereas beliefs about quick learning contributed the least. Findings suggest that beliefs about innate ability are an important factor in conceptual change learning among inner-city high school students. (Contains 38 references and 5 tables of data.) (Author/RS)
A Study on 6th Grade Students’ Epistemological Beliefs
2014
The purpose of the present study is to determine the elementary school 6 th grades students' epistemological beliefs. In the present study was employed qualitative research method. The sampling of the study consists of 155, 6 th grade students. As a tool data collection open-ended question form developed by the researchers was used. The data were analyzed through descriptive and content analysis techniques. As a result of research; they stated that they decide whether a piece of information is scientific or not, and they make this decision based on the resources, its compliance with the stages of scientific research, and whether it is justified or not. They stated that they have access to scientific information by means of internet, encyclopedia and journal by using the stages of scientific research. They think that information elicited by scholars may not be necessarily correct. They stated that scientific information can be elicited not only by scholars but also by anyone. They stated that any information written in books may not be correct because some information is open to be discredited. Those who believe the correctness of information believe so as they think it correctness has been proved. They believe that the mysteries of the universe have not been solved thoroughly because the universe is infinite and the mysteries of extraterrestrial creatures and x particle have not been solved. They stated that the science cannot question everything because the one who knows everything is God; hence, something cannot be questioned by the science.
Analysis of Scientific Epistemological Beliefs of Eighth Graders
The aim of this study is to determine the levels of scientific epistemological beliefs of 8th grade students. The sample of the study consisted of 355 students. The data of the study were collected through the use of the Scale of Scientific Epistemological Beliefs, which was developed by Elder (1999) and adapted into Turkish by Acat, Tuken and Karadag (2010). Personal Data Form was also used to obtain demographic data about the participants. In order to determine the levels of scientific epistemological beliefs of the students, the means and standard deviations were calculated for each scale. The findings of the study suggest that scientific epistemological beliefs of 8th grade school students are closer to sophisticated beliefs and mid-level.
UMT Education Review
Students’ approaches to the learning process, their learning style, cognitive style, learning preferences, and beliefs about knowledge had been the main focus of empirical research for many years. A quantitative survey was carried out to explore their epistemological beliefs about science and their learning approaches towards science. Moreover, the correlation between these two variables at secondary level science classroom in Chitral, Pakistan was determined. The population of the current study consisted of 59293 students from both genders studying in various public sector schools in Chitral district. Secondary school science students served as the population for this research, while 379 students were randomly selected as sample. Approaches to Learning Questionnaire (ALQ) and Students Epistemic Beliefs (SEB) questionnaire were adapted and administered for data collection. The findings showed that students employed both surface and deep approaches for science learning at secondary ...
Differences in Epistemological Beliefs in the Context of Scientific Practice
AERA Annual Conference, 2013
This paper investigates the question of whether there are differences in the science epistemological beliefs of sixth graders and eighth graders who have spent two years engaging in authentic science practices. Taking the view that epistemological beliefs can be measured by looking for evidence of the use of certain epistemological resources in students' behavior, we presented students with tasks asking them to create or evaluate science knowledge products within the context of science practices. We found that the eighth graders were more likely than the sixth graders to make use of the ideas of cause and effect and evidence, while sixth graders were more likely to evaluate science knowledge simply on its correctness. This indicates that the eighth graders' beliefs are what we would consider to be more scientifically literate.