Compelling evidence, from multiple levels of schooling, suggests that teachers' knowledge and beliefs about knowledge, knowing, and learning ("i.e.," epistemologies) play a strong role in shaping their approaches to teaching and learning. Given the importance of epistemologies in science teaching, we as researchers must pay careful…

High Leverage Practices (HLPs), as a core set of teaching practices, represent important instructional priorities and provide instructional guidance for students' engagement in practice-based instruction. The goals of this research were to: (1) understand how an epistemic community (the people designing and leading courses and programs) viewed the…

This paper focuses on understanding and exploring how a group of university engineering and science tutor educators learn and assimilate new conceptions about their role in the face of the forces of globalisation that are transforming the system of higher education. This research paper adopts the notion of the Teacher Support Team (TST) as…

Institutional research management (RM) is increasingly seen as a strategic force, not only to raise the research output per academic, but also the quality thereof. RM, therefore, has to attend to researcher development (RD). How RD is achieved, as part of RM, is still viewed as an embryonic field with attendant calls for additional research.…

In this exploratory study, we investigated the personal epistemologies of statisticians in academia with the aim of offering some insight into what might be an availing epistemology for learning statistics. Findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six academics in the UK currently researching within the field of statistics showed…

In this paper we propose a new Technopedagogical Disciplinary Knowledge model. This model integrates four separate dimensions, which we use to measure a teacher's effectiveness. These are the individual teacher's discipline (D), personal epistemology (E), pedagogical knowledge (P), and knowledge of technology (T). We also acknowledge the existence…

This paper contributes to consideration of the role of conceptual frameworks in the doctoral research process. Through reflection on the two authors' own conceptual frameworks for their doctoral studies, a pedagogical model has been developed. The model posits the development of a conceptual framework as a core element of the doctoral…

The authors build on literature related to the development of epistemic cognition, research on historical thinking, and studies of individuals' epistemic beliefs. They designed this study to explore, develop, and test a measure of epistemic cognition in history. They administered the Beliefs about Learning and Teaching History Questionnaire to…

This study investigates the prevailing epistemological and cultural conditions that underlie educational research in Palestine. Using a case study of a major Palestinian University that awards Masters Degrees in Education, the study analyzes the assumptions and the methodology that characterizes current educational research. Using an analysis of…

Previous research has indicated that university faculty members' attitudes towards students with disabilities varies depending on specific background qualities of those faculty, including gender, type of field (soft or hard science), and type of study (pure or applied). We examined epistemological beliefs as a possible mediator between faculty…

Recommends that prior to peer faculty review, both parties involved should understand that there are two paradigms of education. Focuses on the alignment of peer review evaluation tools with the teaching implications of the paradigm choice. (Contains 45 references.) (DDR)

A semi-structured interview was used in Brazil to enquire into the "notion of model" held by a total sample of 39 science teachers who were: employed in "fundamental" (6-14 years) and "medium" (15-17 years) schools; student science teachers currently doing their practicum; and university science teachers. Seven…

Examines the models through which different academic disciplines approach inquiry. Faculty working in different models view their work differently, apply different evaluative standards, and accept different types of values. Although the discipline is more conspicuous than the model, the latter is equally important in understanding epistemological…

A nonlinear conceptual framework for creation of knowledge that sees knowledge flowing in many directions and knowledge created in many different ways is the basis for an expanded, more inclusive view of scholarship. This suggests a new formulation for common characteristics of scholarship and common criteria for its assessment. (JB)

Two alternative paradigms for undergraduate education are compared; one holds teaching as its purpose, the other learning. The natures of the two paradigms are examined on the following dimensions: mission and purposes, criteria for success, teaching and learning structures, underlying learning theory, concepts of productivity and methods of…