The structural relationship between students’ epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between students’ epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning. The results showed that the epistemological beliefs dimension ‘learning effort/process’ was positively related to the constructivist conception of teaching and learning, and negatively related to the traditional conception of teaching and learning, indicating that students recognize the importance of self‐directed learning. The relationships that were established between the ‘expert knowledge’ dimension of epistemological beliefs and the conceptions of teaching and learning show that students who do not believe in teachers as a main source of expertise tend to have constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning. Moreover, a positive relationship was found between the ‘certainty of knowledge’ dimension and the traditional conception of teaching and learning. These findings are in line with a constructivist philosophy of education and the principles of problem‐based learning.

Keywords:

• epistemological beliefs
• conceptions of teaching and learning
• constructivism
• problem‐based learning