Investigating students' epistemological beliefs through gender, grade level, and fields of study

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2009
Kurt, Fatma
This reserach attemptedbto investigate the epistemological beliefs held by Turkish students through gender, grade level, and fields of the study by using Hofer and Pintrich's (1997) Frame work. A total of 1557 sixth, eighth, and tenth grade students from Çankaya district of Ankara participated in the study. Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire and Demographical Questionnaire were administered to the students in order to determine their epistemological belşiefs and their background caharcteristics. Four main conclusions can be drawn from the current study; epistemological beliefs are multidimensional, epistemological beliefs vary as a function of gender, grade level, and fields of study. Specifically girls were found to have more sophisticated beliefs in justification of knowledge than boys. Results also supproted the idea that epistemological beliefs develops over time.tenth grade students had more sophisticated beliefs in source of knowledge, certainty of knowledge, and development of knowledge compared to sixth and eighth grade students. Besides, findings of the study revealed differences in epistemological beliefs of students across different major fields of the study. The students attending to the mathematics-science fields were fıund to have more sophisticated beliefs about justification of knowledge than the students attending to literature-social science fields.

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Citation Formats
F. Kurt, “Investigating students’ epistemological beliefs through gender, grade level, and fields of study,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2009.