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Theories of epistemological beliefs focus on individuals' perceptions about what knowledge is and where knowledge comes from. These beliefs are part of, and may in fact direct, the cognitive processes involved in learning (Kitchener & King, 1990; Perry, 1999; Schommer, 1990). Research stemming from these theories offers varied explanations as to how beliefs relate to student learning and academic success.
Although the results of this research are equivocal at best, they do offer several general insights into the impact of beliefs on learning. First, some research focuses on the relationship between beliefs and monitoring. Some researchers (e.g., Ryan, 1984) found that epistemological beliefs influence how students monitor the acquisition of knowledge. Students who were classified as dualists reported trying to recall facts from the text, but those classified as relativists reported trying to paraphrase and summarize the text in their own words. However, when Glenberg and Epstein (1987) used Ryan's scale to examine learning in science courses, they found no significant relationship between epistemological beliefs and students' ability to accurately monitor their comprehension of scientific text. Second, research has focused on the issue of domain and beliefs. Some researchers found differences in beliefs depending on domain or discipline (Palmer & Marra, 2004; Schommer-Aikins, Duell, & Barker, 2003). For example, Palmer and Marra (2004) found differences in the epistemological beliefs of engineering and science students across the disciplines of the sciences and the humanities. However, Buel, Alexander, and Murphy (2002) found evidence of domain-generality in undergraduates' epistemological beliefs. Third, research has examined the relationship between task and beliefs. Simpson and Nist's (1997) research on how students learn and study history found that in order to be successful, students either had to have beliefs about history that were similar to their professor's or have a clear understanding of course task.
Other research indicates that epistemological beliefs might affect the depth to which individuals learn (Schommer, 1990, 1993; Schreiber & Shinn, 2003). There is evidence that students with naive epistemic assumptions tend to endorse surface-level strategies while students with sophisticated epistemological beliefs tend to endorse deep-level strategies (Holschuh, 1998; Schommer, 1990; Schreiber & Shinn, 2003). Thus, epistemological beliefs may function as a benchmark against which individuals compare comprehension and learning to the task demands, which, in turn, would influence students' strategy selection and use (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997; Ryan, 1984). For example, when encountering complex tasks, individuals holding naive epistemological beliefs, may not understand the necessity of choosing deep-level processing strategies. In fact, individuals with naive beliefs may not be able to discriminate between surface- and deep-level strategies. Such students may choose to make flash cards to study for an exam and would believe they were well-prepared when they memorized all of the facts or bold-faced terms. In addition, given an exam where the professor expects students to synthesize ideas or to analyze information, students with naive beliefs would be unprepared for the task and would have no idea where the questions were coming from because they do not match their conception about what knowledge is and where knowledge comes from.
One of the leading researchers in the area of epistemological beliefs and how they...
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