In this study, we investigated the effects of teaching critical-thinking principles on university students' epistemological beliefs, whether these effects had any relation to the teaching approaches, and whether there was any significant interaction effect between teaching approach and students' epistemological beliefs. One hundred and eight…

Theories of epistemological beliefs focus on individuals' perceptions about what knowledge is and where knowledge comes from. These beliefs are part of, and may in fact direct, the cognitive processes involved in learning. Research stemming from these theories offers varied explanations as to how beliefs relate to student learning and academic…

A long-standing challenge for management educators concerns developing pedagogies that confront the complexities associated with the process of managing. Faculty need to simultaneously acknowledge the practicality of content as well as the salience of students' experience. This article proposes action research to raise pedagogy above methodology…

Science educators agree that learning science involves learning about the body of scientific knowledge, about how that knowledge is generated, and about how it is socially constructed. However, the emphasis in many science curricula has been on learning about the body of knowledge to the neglect of the epistemology and sociology of science. The…

An epistemological questionnaire assessing students' beliefs in fixed ability to learn, simple knowledge, quick learning, and certain knowledge was administered to 288 high school students (of which 72 were gifted). Differences were found between gifted and nongifted students at the end of high school and between males and females. (Author/DB)

Explores, in the context of a debate about velocity from the author's high school physics class, how a perspective of students as having epistemological beliefs might influence a teacher's perceptions of students and intentions for instruction. (LZ)

Examines the extent to which science education graduate students enjoy a well-articulated position on the compatibility of science and religion and, as a result, are comfortable with their espoused views and plans for the role of religion in classroom discussions. Examines changes in students' mental states as a form of conceptual change after a…

Presents findings of the images of science drawn upon in laboratory work by upper secondary and university students in academic streams with a science focus. Questions required students to comment on laboratory investigations carried out by research scientists or science students. Shows that students' reasoning has an epistemological and an…

Focuses on how students' epistemological beliefs are related to conceptual change learning in science. Addresses: taking students' epistemological beliefs into account; findings of secondary school students' epistemological beliefs about science; and instructional strategies to promote students' mature epistemological beliefs. Focuses specifically…

Background: More empirical work is needed to examine the dimensionality of personal epistemology and relations between those dimensions and motivational and strategic components of self-regulated learning. In particular, there is great need to investigate personal epistemology and its relation to self-regulated learning across cultures and…

The practical epistemologies of university students during laboratory work in chemistry are analyzed to enhance understanding of how teaching practices interact with learners. The purpose is to develop a theoretical framework of learning as action that can be used by educational researchers to examine meaning-making, but also by teachers in close…

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 study examined the extent to which perceived occupational barriers and perceived parental support predicted career certainty and career indecision in a sample of African American adolescents. Perceived occupational barriers were positively predictive of career indecision, and perceived parental support was positively associated with career…

Cluster analysis and analysis of variance procedures were used to identify students' domain-specific epistemological belief profiles and to examine differences in students' beliefs, motivation, and task performance. Four hundred eighty-two undergraduates completed measures regarding their beliefs about knowledge, competency beliefs, and…

Alexander and her colleagues proposed "teaching as persuasion" as a guiding metaphor for conceptual change pedagogy (Alexander, Fives, Buehl, & Mulhern, 2002). However, there is reason to suspect that the term persuasion can have negative connotations for some individuals ( Dole & Sinatra, 1999; Murphy, 2001). Therefore, we examined 182 primarily…