Measuring Personal Epistemology in the Digital Age (original) (raw)
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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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In higher education, personal epistemology is today a significant research area. Personal epistemology has been seen as promising particularly because it focuses on one of the general learning aims of many contemporary universities, namely, the development of students’ creative and critical thinking. The article identifies serious conceptual problems in the theoretical framework of personal epistemology. First, we argue – contrary to many promoters of personal epistemology – that personal epistemology’s theoretical models are not based merely on empirical data from developmental psychology, but clearly feature normative philosophical elements. Second, we consider the acceptance of relativism in the theoretical framework of personal epistemology. We argue that the concept of fallibilism has been overlooked, which has forced personal epistemology theorists to choose between naïve realism and relativism. Their choice of relativism has led – in addition to other philosophical problems –...
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In this paper, we investigate the personal epistemology of computing students, that is, their conceptions of knowledge and learning. We review some models of personal epistemological development and describe one of the questionnaire tools that have been used to assess the epistemological beliefs of students studying in other disciplines. We describe an experiment that uses one of these tools, together with exploratory factor analysis, to determine the dimensions of epistemological beliefs of a cohort of computing students and compare the results with that reported in other contexts. The results, while not reproducing the details of previous work, do seem to suggest that there are indeed multiple dimensions to personal epistemology, and that these can be identified, to a large extent, with those recognised by other researchers. Finally, we make some observations about the importance of personal epistemology for learning in Computer Science and outline further work in this area.
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Personal Epistemology" is the analysis of the ways in which an individual perceives what constitutes knowledge, its boundaries, how it is justified, and how it is related to learning. While investigation of metacognitive strategies used by students is now an established research topic within Computer Science and Information Technology education, the study of personal epistemology is relatively undeveloped. This is so despite there being significant epistemological issues associated with learning the subject itself, such as those concerned with the way in which programming exercises change from convergent to divergent problems, or the process by which software project management problems very quickly become ill-defined. In this paper, we describe a preliminary investigation into the personal epistemology of two cohorts of computing students. We review some models of personal epistemological development and describe an empirical study in which we investigated the dimensions of epistemological beliefs of two cohorts of computing students. The results show that there appears to be a wide range of epistemological belief amongst computing students. Finally, we make some observations about the importance of personal epistemology for learning in Computer Science and outline further work in this area.
Information, knowledge, and learning: Some issues facing epistemology and education in a digital age
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Philosophers of education have always been interested in epistemological issues. In their efforts to help inform educational theory and practice they have dealt extensively with concepts like knowledge, teaching, learning, thinking, understanding, belief, justification, theory, the disciplines, rationality and the like. Their inquiries have addressed issues about what kinds of knowledge are most important and worthwhile, and how knowledge and information might best be organised as curricular activity.
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This paper reports on two studies conducted in 2006 in the Singapore schools to investigate the relationships between teachers' beliefs about knowledge and learning, their pedagogical practices, and uses of information and communications technologies (ICT). Three primary research questions were examined in this research: First, do teachers' beliefs about knowledge and learning influence the uses of ICT, pedagogical approaches, and types of assessments used in the Singapore schools? Second, does the school culture influence the uses of pedagogical approaches and ICT by Singapore teachers in their classes? Third, are the epistemic ideas about the nature of knowledge and learning beliefs that are stable cognitive structures or are they resources that are more adaptively shaped to different contexts? In Study 1, 1882 teachers from 51 schools took part in the 187-item online survey on these areas, and Study 2 involved eight principals, two vice-principals, 33 heads of department, and 60 teachers in structured interviews. It had been hypothesized that beliefs about the nature of knowledge being complex and changing would be associated with more learner-centered pedagogical practices and uses of technology in the classrooms. However, the main findings of Study 1 suggest that it is not epistemological beliefs of teachers about knowledge and knowing that shape pedagogical practices in Singapore schools, but rather teachers' beliefs about learning. From the interviews in Study 2, it appears that teachers tend to mix pedagogical strategies consisting of both teacher-directed and learner-centered approaches primarily based on beliefs about learning. Our research findings also suggest that epistemic ideas teachers have may not be relatively fixed and stable "beliefs" but rather are more contextually influenced epistemic resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of these findings and their implications for theory, practice, and future research.
International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 2021
4p.69 p. 4). This close link between education and knowledge constitutes the basis for many research areas as education structures knowledge channels and knowledge prepares educational environments, which constitutes the essence of all educational activities. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge structured on what knowledge is. The concepts of "knowing" and "knowledge", referring to the term epistemology, have been the limelight of philosophy for centuries and even the most significant feeding source. Besides, the concept of epistemology deals with the structuring and evaluation of knowledge and beliefs about how knowledge will be verified (Yılmaz, 2009, p. 182), as well as examining, researching and questioning the nature, source, boundaries, reliability, validity and ways of obtaining and transferring knowledge (Demir & Acar, 1997, p. 80). The concept of knowledge is salient in numerous disciplines, one of which is educational sciences and in this context, new approaches are propounded with the needs of the 21 st century. These needs and beliefs will continue to be addressed along with the characteristics of the changing generation. Epistemology is a dynamic field that can both affect the field of education and that can be affected by the educational process (Demir & Akınoğlu, 2010, p. 75), and epistemological beliefs are also far-reaching for lifelong learning with
Change in Epistemological Belief of Students in Current Era
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022
Epistemological beliefs among students about the nature of knowledge and knowing, are the topics of target currently and has become a field of increased research interest specially among educators. The present study tries to understand the change that has occurred among students in regards to their epistemological beliefs in the current era. Student epistemological beliefs are viewed as important as teachers' epistemological beliefs since it will influence their behavior in classroom and help in determining their learning strategies. Thus, it is important for a teacher to determine the change in students' epistemological beliefs that has occurred due to technical advancement and development of new learning strategies in order to cater individual differences among learners and develop higher order thinking.
The British journal of educational psychology, 2005
In recent decades, two lines of research, phenomenographic and meta-cognitive, have examined students' approaches and epistemological beliefs about learning. To date there has been very little research describing the change in epistemological beliefs in European secondary students, or analysing interrelationships between epistemological beliefs and approaches in order to explain their influence on academic performance. The first aim of this investigation is to analyse the change in epistemological beliefs and learning approaches in secondary students as they progress through their studies. The second aim is to examine the effects of epistemological beliefs on learning approaches, and learning approaches on academic performance. About 1,600 Spanish students, boys and girls, from several secondary schools took part in the study. They were between 12 and 20 years old and their average age was 14.79 years. Measures of epistemological beliefs (EQ: Epistemological Questionnaire), lear...