This qualitative descriptive case study explores how genealogists describe the mechanism of epistemic change in their research, highlighting the roles of epistemological doubt, epistemological volition, and resolution strategies. It explores the integration of digital technologies in genealogical practices in the United States and their…

This study employed quantitative methods to analyze survey results related to the epistemic beliefs and classroom practices of economics educators. Studying economics has positive benefits at the individual, family, and social levels, but analysis of learning outcomes suggests that economics education needs to increase student engagement and…

This dissertation examined the relationship between elementary school science teachers' epistemic orientation and classroom learning environment type--generative or replicative--they established for science knowledge development. Drawing on the theory of epistemological development and understanding, the influence of teacher epistemic beliefs on…

This study explored the role of secondary Mathematics teachers' characteristics and multi-dimensional beliefs in integrating technology into teaching practice (i.e., mode of technology use). The research design employed is the convergent mixed method. The quantitative strand employed an electronic survey with 83 respondents. It has one primary…

Epistemic beliefs, epistemic cognitions, and self-regulation processes have a significant role in students' learning. Through this study, I investigated the role of mechanical engineering students' epistemic beliefs and epistemic cognitions involved in self-regulation processes while working on tasks with different difficulty levels. In this…

This study explores how high school and college history instructors' perspectives of experiential learning opportunities and high-impact practices influence their epistemic beliefs as history teachers. The research considers educators' pedagogical practices to align inquiry and historical thinking with experiential learning opportunities and…

Individuals rely on accurate information to make important decisions, but in the current environment the vast amount of misinformation present in society is complicating people's thinking. Many people fall prey to a cognitive bias called the continued influence effect, which occurs when they continue to use misinformation even when they have seen…

"Citizen science" popularly refers to a participatory approach in which lay persons voluntarily contribute data toward scientific enterprise. Although citizen science may provide unique opportunities for pre-college students to engage in data-intensive science practices, little is known about whether or how citizen science interacts with…

Diversity is now an essential matter in US public schools. For the first time in America's history, students of color will constitute a majority of the public school enrollment; on the other hand, most early childhood and elementary teachers remain monolingual, white, middle-class females (Hussar & Bailey, 2019). The demographic mismatch…

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is a term for various methods by which universities accredit student experiential learning. One such method is the academic portfolio, a written reflective process in which students demonstrate that their personal or professional learning fulfills university outcomes. Proponents of academic portfolios claim that…

Mediocre science achievement and poor STEM graduation rates have prompted educators to reexamine their traditional focus on factual memorization and seek more effective instructional strategies. One such reform-oriented instructional practice is argumentative discourse. Argumentative discourse is student-driven, reasoned argumentation to promote…

Understanding how student characteristics affect learning in chemistry can influence the pedagogical strategies employed by chemistry instructors. Previous studies have investigated the effects of characteristics including prior knowledge, math ability, and motivations on course performance. Student characteristics can also influence study…

This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring the role that information plays in strategic situations. The first two chapters are devoted to modeling a decision maker's reasoning (knowledge, beliefs, and unawareness) about those of other decision makers in strategic environments. The third chapter, in turn, studies how information and…

At universities across the United States the epistemological beliefs of students have been observed to deteriorate after a semester of instruction in an introductory physics course. What this indicates is that after taking a course in physics most students, for example, may become less capable of delineating between evidence-based reasoning and…

This study examines teachers' beliefs in the nature and malleability of intelligence, how these beliefs may vary in different academic domains, and whether those beliefs have any significant relationships with teachers' self-efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs, and proposed interventions for struggling students. Findings showed that teachers…