One understudied barrier to science education reform concerns teachers’ cognitive processes and how they relate to instructional decision-making. Epistemic cognition—teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and knowledge acquisition and goals for their students’ knowledge acquisition—could provide important insights into the choices science teachers make in the classroom and why they might and might not adopt different instructional practices. Previous research has found mixed results regarding the relationship between beliefs and practice. Uniquely, science teachers encounter epistemic beliefs from both science and education, with potential differences that may need to be negotiated. This study found significant differences between the two belief systems but failed to find differences between biology, chemistry, physics, and Earth science. Three profiles were identified that were significantly different on their epistemic beliefs in the natural sciences and the learning sciences. Those in the naïve profile (highest beliefs in certainty of knowledge, authority as source of knowledge, and attainability of truth) had significantly less self-efficacy than those in the sophisticated profile, which predicted lower frequency of investigative teaching practices and practices promoting an investigative culture. Those in the flexible profile (medium beliefs in certainty of knowledge, authority as source of knowledge, and attainability of truth) used practices promoting an investigative culture significantly less frequently than those in the sophisticated profile. The findings from this study add to the literature on epistemic cognition and its influences. / Educational Psychology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/2171 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Ponnock, H. Annette Roché |
| Contributors | Kaplan, Avi, Hindman, Annemarie H., Bailey, Janelle M., Greene, Jeffrey Alan |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 166 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2153, Theses and Dissertations |
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