This study assessed the relationship between children’s, adolescents’, and adults’
epistemological development and their evaluations of different teaching methods.
Participants were presented with different teaching scenarios in which the domain
(scientific or moral), nature (controversial or noncontroversial), and method (lecture or
discussion) were varied to determine if this affected participants’ rating of the scenarios.
Epistemological development was assessed in three domains: aesthetic, value (moral),
and physical truth (science). Ninety-six participants (7–8-, 10–11-, 13–14-year-olds, and
college students) were included in the study. In general, it was discovered that older
participants (13-14-year-olds and college students) preferred discussion methods, while
younger participants (7-8 and 10-11-year-olds) did not discriminate between lectures or
discussions. However, all participants took the domain, nature, and method into
consideration. Epistemological development was predictive of participants’ preference
for teaching methods, but only in the value domain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/18990 |
| Date | 17 February 2010 |
| Creators | Watson, Sarah |
| Contributors | Helwig, Charles C. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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