Available evidence indicates that teacher candidates undergo shifts in beliefs throughout the process of learning to teach, and various contextual realities contribute to reshaping their general teaching beliefs. The concept of epistemic beliefs is key to understanding teacher development as cross-cultural teacher education becomes increasingly…

We describe relationships among epistemological, interpersonal, and intrapersonal development in Chinese college students from the perspective of self-authorship theory. The themes that emerged from interviews with 13 junior or senior students offer insights into unique aspects of self-authorship development in the Chinese higher education context…

The differences in literacy education practices between China and the United States are often attributed to their different educational, sociocultural, and historical contexts. However, this sweeping view offers little to help literacy educators in both countries understand the beliefs behind literacy instructional practices and how different or…

The purpose of the study was to examine undergraduate students' conceptions of inquiry and the relationship of inquiry conceptions to epistemic beliefs. Data were obtained from 107 university students (80 female, 27 male) using an open-ended questionnaire to examine their conceptions of inquiry and Schommer's Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire…

Beliefs about knowledge have been found to relate to a variety of student outcomes and to vary across educational domains and instructional contexts. However, there are limited data on students' beliefs about information and truth, vis-à-vis knowledge (i.e., epistemic beliefs) and how these beliefs differ across instructional settings.…

This article argues that the Seven Solutions in the US, and the Research Excellence Framework in the UK, manifest the vice of epistemic insensibility. Section I provides an overview of Aristotle's analysis of moral vice in people. Section II applies Aristotle's analysis to epistemic vice, developing an account of epistemic insensibility. In so…

The current study examines the personal epistemology of fourth-grade elementary school teachers from Germany (n = 10) and the United States (n = 10) to gain a more nuanced understanding of teachers' beliefs about knowledge and knowing through a cross-cultural lens. Analyses of semi-structured interviews reveal similarities and differences in the…

This study provides important insights into the relationship between the epistemological beliefs of community college students, the selection of learning strategies, and academic achievement. This study employed a quantitative survey design. Data were collected by surveying students at a community college during the spring semester of 2010. The…

This study examined undergraduate and graduate engineering students' epistemological beliefs as a function of their educational level. Schommer's (1998) Epistemological Questionnaire was used to assess the beliefs in quick learning, certain knowledge, fixed ability, and simple knowledge of 396 students attending two universities in Western…

Paulsen and Wells (1998) stated that, "it seems unlikely that substantial differences in epistemological beliefs across domains would persist in studies of faculty or other more advanced experts," (p. 380). This statement implies the existence of an upper limit or ceiling effect in the epistemological beliefs among experts. Faculty…

The conception of knowledge was studied for 213 14- and 15-year-old students in Singapore and their 37 teachers and 96 students in the United States, with their 10 teachers. Cultural differences, including those in epistemological frameworks, are discussed, and their implications for education considered. (SLD)

This study investigated conceptions of knowledge and beliefs among 242 Italian and 231 American college students. Perceptions of the nature and interrelation of knowledge and beliefs, and prevalent characterizations and sources of these two constructs were explored by qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Differences emerged between Italian…

It has long been a goal of science education in the United States that students leave school with a robust understanding of the nature of science. Decades of research show that this does not happen. Inquiry-based instruction is advocated as a means for developing such understanding, although there is scant direct evidence that it does. There is a…

This paper makes a critical exploration into the core epistemological assumptions of mainstream television effects research and explains why the mainstream study of the cognitive impact of television on children suffers from two reductionist tendencies, i.e., television is understood by most researchers to be solely a technical medium, and most…

For the thirty-sixth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Anaheim, California. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…