The notion of quantitative physics education research (PER) so far has been mostly limited to the mere use of statistical methods or use of computational tools for analyzing numerical data. Little attention, in fact, has been given to the underpinnings of this research paradigm. To fill the gap, this theoretical paper addresses key and yet often…

This article describes a survey study of college students' epistemologies about biology and learning biology. Specifically, the authors examined the differences between science and nonscience majors and their changes in epistemologies over the course of a semester of instruction.

Previous literature on learners' epistemological beliefs about physics has almost exclusively focused on analysis of university classroom instruction and its effects on students' views. However, little is known about other populations or factors other than classroom instruction on learners' epistemologies. In this study, we used a cross-sequential…

This study seeks to test the causal influences of reasoning skills and epistemologies on student conceptual learning in physics. A causal model, integrating multiple variables that were investigated separately in the prior literature, is proposed and tested through path analysis. These variables include student preinstructional reasoning skills…

This paper reports a cross-grade comparative study of Chinese precollege students' epistemological beliefs about physics by using the Colorado Learning Attitudes Survey about Sciences (CLASS). Our students of interest are middle and high schoolers taking traditional lecture-based physics as a mandatory science course each year from the 8th grade…