The contributors to this special issue explore the connections between metacognition and personal epistemology. This commentary on the five articles addresses definitional concerns regarding both epistemology and metacognition, discusses the conceptual relation between the constructs, critiques methodological approaches, and suggests developmental…

Personal epistemology has typically been conceptualized in one of two primary ways: as a cognitive developmental process or as a system of beliefs. The approach that is elaborated here is to conceive of epistemological understanding as a metacognitive process that activates epistemic theories, a multidimensional set of interrelated beliefs about…