Students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge : what are they and how do they affect comprehension?
Year: 1989
Type: article
Abstract: Students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge, or epistemological beliefs, were assessed and the effects of these beliefs on comprehension were studied.In Experiment 1, an epistemological questionnaire was administered to undergraduates.Factor analysis of the questionnaire resulted in four factors reflecting degrees of belief in INNATE ABILITY, SIMPLE KNOWLEDGE, QUICK LEARNING, and CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE.In Experiment 2, students read a passage from either the social sciences or the physical sciences, in which the concluding paragraph was removed.Then, they rated their confidence in understanding the passage, wrote a conclusion, and completed a mastery test.Belief in QUICK LEARNING predicted oversimplified conclusions and belief in CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE predicted inappropriately absolute conclusions.Belief in QUICK LEARNING predicted poor performance on the mastery test and confidence rating.These results indicate that epistemological beliefs should be conceptualized in terms of several independent dimensions, each with distinct effects on comprehension.
Author: Marlene Schommer
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1559803382