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Personal epistemology of students

8th Alps-Adria Conference Ljubljana, October 2-4, 2008. Personal epistemology of students. Edvard Konrad Department of Psychology University Ljubljana. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that study the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge (Webster).

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Personal epistemology of students

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  1. 8th Alps-Adria Conference Ljubljana, October 2-4, 2008 Personal epistemology of students Edvard Konrad Department of Psychology University Ljubljana

  2. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that study the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge (Webster) It is time for epistemology to take its rightful place alongside ethics as a discipline that offers practical, real-world recommendations for living (Bishop & Trout, 2005)

  3. Personal epistemology is the study of how individuals develop a conception of knowledge and knowledge acquisition, and how they use that conception to understand the world (Hofer, 2002). It might be described as “intuitive epistemology,” what peoplenow about knowledge, knowing, and learning, as acquired from their experiences ineveryday life and in school.

  4. Personal epistemology has become an area of growing interest in educational research, with far reaching implications for teaching and learning practices, and knowledge management in different organizational setting.

  5. The underlying assumption has been that in learning situations where individuals are systematically confronted with the need to acquire new knowledge, the way in which they perceive and approach the process of knowing is, to some extent, influenced by their beliefs about knowledge, knowing, and learning.Personal epistemology should be related to the quality of knowledge aquired in the educational process.

  6. In early work, Perry (1968) observed that the lack of congruence between the conceptions of learning held by university undergraduates and their teachers were responsible for some learning difficulties, particularly where students saw knowledge as simple, certain and authority based, while teachers stressed ambiguity and conflicting truths.

  7. Epistemological and ethical development is an ongoing qualitative reorganization of the making of meaning through progressive stages.Perry proposed a qualitative developmental framework of nine stages to describe the changes in epistemological positions of college student.

  8. Perry’sepistemological positions of college students (1968) • There are right/wrong answers to all questions, known to Authorities. • Uncertainty are due to authorities. • There are gaps in the knowledge of authorities. • Out of specific domain of authorities, everyone can have his own opinion. • All values and knowledge are relativistic. • Values and knowledge depend on context but some commitment is necessary. • Beginnings of intellectual commitmens. • Inquiry of implications of these commitments. • Accepting some commitment that determines student’s life stile.

  9. Perry’s framework influenced the development of quantitative measures of personal epistemology that are more convenient for research.Today the multidimensional frameworks of epistemological beliefs prevail and are used in this study (Schommer, 1990, Hofer, 2001)

  10. Reseach questions: • Are epistemological belief of gimnasium students more naive than those of students in the first year of study of psychology ? • Are epistemological belief of the first year students more naive than those of students in the forth year of study of psychology? • How are epistemological beliefs related to knowledge about psychology?

  11. Participants • 63 students 2nd year gymnasium • Mean age 17.3, 54% females • 49 students end of 1st year psychology • Mean age 19.5, 90% females • 44 students end of 4th year psychology • Mean age 23.2, 91% females

  12. Measures

  13. Measures Test of knowledge of psychology(Costin, 1963) • General knowledge or attitude (30 multiple choice items)(test-retest reliability .78) • Methodological knowledge (30 multiple choice items)(test-retest reliability .80)

  14. Comparison between gymnasium students and 1st year students of psychology

  15. Comparison between 1st year and 4th year psychology students

  16. Relationship between epistemological beliefs and knowledge about psychology

  17. Open questions • Reliabilities of scales • General or context specific epistemological beliefs • Relationship with grades

  18. Implications • Improvement of teaching process • Less emphasis on grades and more on teaching experiences • Career counseling of students • Importance of epistemological beliefs for lifelong learning.

  19. It is abundantly clear that students were learning to pass formal physics tests while retaining naïve and unproductive physics understandings (Duit, Goldberg & Niedderer,1992; McDermott, 1984; Redish, 1994).

  20. Thank you for your attention !

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