An Analysis of Science Student Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs and Metacognitive Perceptions about the Nature of Science

Abstract

This study has been carried out to identify the relationship between the epistemological beliefs of student teachers and their metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science. The participants of the study totaled 336 student teachers enrolled in the elementary science education division of the department of elementary education at the faculty of educational sciences in a state university in western Turkey. The data for the study was collected through the scale of epistemological beliefs, the scale of metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science, and the personal information form. The scale of epistemological beliefs was developed by Schommer and adapted to Turkish by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk. The scale of metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science was developed by Peters and adapted to Turkish by the author. The correlations between the participants' epistemological beliefs and metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science and the variables of grade level and gender were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study showed participants to have positive epistemological beliefs and metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science. The participants' epistemological beliefs and metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science were also found to not be significantly affected by the variables of grade or gender. In addition, epistemological beliefs were found to be a significant predictor of metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science.

The Investigation of Pre Service Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs According to Some Variables

“…The findings on the change of the epistemological beliefs with respect to grade level in this study are not consistent with those of some previous research (Meral and Colak 2009;Yenice 2015), while findings of some researchers support the results (Kurt 2009;Onen 2011;Eren 2007;Akyuzluer 2014;Belet and Guven 2011;Tumkaya 2012;Aypaya 2010;Isıksal, Kurt, Dogan and Cakıroglu 2007). Any of four sub-dimensions of the scale showed no difference by gender.…”

“…Any of four sub-dimensions of the scale showed no difference by gender. In literature, as well as the reports remarking the effect of gender (Schommer 1993;Aytunga 2008;Ertekin, Dilmac, Delice and Aydın 2009;Aypaya 2010;Meral and Colak 2009;De-Juanas and Beltran 2012;Belet and Guven 2011;Terzi, Sahan and Celik 2015;Deniz 2014;Onen 2011;Topcu and Yılmaz Tuzun 2009;Er 2013;Kurt 2009;Yılmaz Tuzun and Topcu 2013), there also are the reports raising that epistemological beliefs is independent of gender (Yenice 2015;Tumkaya 2012;Eren 2007;Kaygın, Bas, Kanbolat and İnenc 2010).In conclusion, these contradictory results suggest that in this field, further and more comprehensive studies must be conducted. The results of present study are limited with only two hundred fifty eight pre service teachers.…”

“…In literature, the studies of whether epistemological beliefs of teachers, teacher candidates and other students vary with gender revealed contradictory results. Apart from the findings which suggest the belief differ by gender (Schommer 1993;Aytunga 2008;Ertekin, Dilmac, Delice and Aydın 2009;Aypaya 2010;Meral and Colak 2009;De-Juanas and Beltran 2012 ;Belet and Guven 2011;Terzi, Sahan and Celik 2015;Deniz 2014;Onen 2011;Topcu and Yılmaz Tuzun 2009;Er 2013;Kurt 2009;Yılmaz Tuzun and Topcu 2013), other some studies report that there is no any difference with respect to gender (Yenice 2015;Tumkaya 2012;Eren 2007;Kaygın, Bas, Kanbolat and İnenc 2010). The further contradictory results were also found for the variables, such as grade level, enrolled program.…”

“…In some research findings, it was explored some sub-dimensions of epistemological beliefs change with grade level (Kurt 2009;Onen 2011;Eren 2007;Akyuzluer 2014;Belet andGuven 2011: Tumkaya 2012;Aypaya 2010;Isıksal, Kurt, Dogan and Cakıroglu 2007). Some Findings indicated that no this belief Change with Grade Level (Meral and Colak 2009;Yenice 2015). while some research findings emphasized with respect to the enrolled university program epistemological beliefs change (Liu, And Tsai 2008;Kurt 2009;Er 2013;Ozdemir and Koksal 2014;Terzi, Sahan, and Celik 2015;Meral and Colak 2009;Ertekin et al 2009;Aypaya 2010;Tumkaya 2012;Palmer and Marra 2004), some other research finding showed that epistemological beliefs are not related to enrolled program (Kaygın, Bas, Kanbolat and İnenc 2010;Schommer and Walker 1995).…”

The Effect of Pre-service Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs on Teaching Approaches

“…The focus point of teacher education programs is that teachers' anticipation for the changes in the learning-teaching paradigms. One of these paradigms is a changeover from teacher centered education to student centered education [98,101]. Because the studies indicate that teachers' approach to teaching affect students' approaches to teaching and their learning process [20,29,31,52,60,61,95,97].…”