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http://dx.doi.org/10.14697/jkase.2015.35.1.0015

Pre-service Science Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs about Scientific Knowledge, Science Learning, and Science Teaching: Context Dependency of Epistemological Beliefs  

Yoon, Hye-Gyoung (Chuncheon National University of Education)
Kang, Nam-Hwa (Korea National University of Education)
Kim, Byoung-Sug (Roosevelt University)
Publication Information
Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education / v.35, no.1, 2015 , pp. 15-25 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study examined pre-service secondary physics teachers' epistemological beliefs about scientific knowledge, science learning, and science teaching in two different science content topics, Lamarckism and the impetus theory. Two sets of open-ended questionnaires, for each of the topics respectively, were developed in the same format. The pre-service teachers completed the questionnaires at one month intervals. The beliefs were analyzed in two dimensions, knowledge justification and knowledge change for each belief area. The findings show that the majority of pre-service teachers held sophisticated epistemological beliefs about scientific knowledge regardless of content topics. On the other hand, more pre-service teachers exhibited sophisticated beliefs about science learning in the context impetus theory than Lamarckism. In the area of science teaching, the majority of pre-service teachers demonstrated a sophisticated view in knowledge justification but a naive view in knowledge change. When consistency across science topics and belief areas were examined, few pre-service teachers held consistent epistemological beliefs across all topics and areas. The difference in the levels of sophistication in belief areas showed that the pre-service teachers did not connect their epistemological beliefs about science knowledge to their ideas about science teaching and learning. This disconnection seems to make the consistency across topics and areas complicated. The difference in epistemological beliefs about science learning and teaching between two science topics need further inquiry. Implications for teacher education are offered.
Keywords
epistemological beliefs; pre-service science teachers; science learning; science teaching; conceptual change;
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