• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.282-295
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• 2011

Prior research has reported that student epistemological beliefs might affect their participation in learning and the process of conceptual change. The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of sixth grade students epistemological beliefs about science and the relation between their epistemological beliefs about science and factors related their learning. For this research questions, 245 sixth grade students participated and various test instruments were used in this study. Students answered two types of questionnaires on epistemological beliefs about science and three test instruments on factors related students' learning(achievement in science, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels). The results of this study were as follows. First, a large number of elementary school students believed that the purpose of science to perform activities like simple experiments. A lot of students believed that scientific knowledge was changeable according to the nature of scientific knowledge and that scientific knowledge could be learnt on their own. Also, many students believed experiment results to be basis on which to form personal scientific conceptions. Second, students who believed in more modern epistemology about science represented higher levels of science learning achievement, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels. Therefore, when developing science curriculum, science educators need to consider how to develop student modern epistemological beliefs about science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.931-938
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• 2015

In the study, epistemological beliefs, metacognition, and scientific inquiry skills all directly affected the science academic achievement levels of high school students. Also, epistemological beliefs indirectly affected science academic achievement mediated by scientific inquiry skills and metacognition, while metacognition had an indirect effect on science academic achievement level mediated by scientific inquiry skills. We found that scientific inquiry skills had the biggest direct effect, while epistemological beliefs showed the most robust indirect effect on academic achievement level. Thus, we argue that students' scientific inquiry skills should be nurtured for the advancement of their academic achievement. In addition, more careful scholarly attention must be given to both epistemological beliefs and metacognition, which directly and indirectly affected academic achievement level. We believe that epistemological beliefs, metacognition, and scientific inquiry skills should all be considered in an integrative manner when developing educational programs and strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.72-86
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine what epistemological beliefs pre-service teachers have about science depending on the situation, and to explore in-depth changes in epistemological beliefs through disciplinary reading. For this purpose, 77 essays written by pre-service elementary school teachers after reading Feynman's 'the meaning of it all' were analyzed using an inductive analysis method. As a result of the study, the epistemological beliefs of pre-service teachers were divided into two situations: 'science in subject learning' and 'science in daily life', and the epistemological beliefs formed in the 'science handled by scientists' situation were analyzed after reading the book. Each situation was divided into sub-categories of 'Impression of Knowledge', 'Source of Knowledge', 'Justification of Knowledge', 'Variability of Knowledge', 'Structure of Knowledge', and 'Value of Knowledge Acquisition' to reveal differences in sophisticated beliefs and naive belief levels. As a result, it was derived that Feynman's science lecture influenced pre-service teachers in terms of establishing new perspectives and recontextualizing existing epistemological beliefs. This study is meaningful in that pre-service teachers' scientific epistemological beliefs may vary depending on the situation, and that the scope and depth of epistemological beliefs may be expanded to include scientists' beliefs in science through disciplinary reading.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyze epistemological beliefs in science as perceived by elementary school students and to examine the purpose of science, the nature of scientific knowledge, the source of scientific knowledge, and the role of experimentation. The subjects of this study were 99 elementary school students. As a tool for examining epistemological beliefs in science, we used adapted questionnaires comprising elements constituting epistemological beliefs, as proposed by Elder (1999). The results of the analysis are as follows: First, in terms of the purpose of science, sixth graders had the most modern beliefs compared to other grades. Second, a statistical significance was found between fourth graders and students in other grades based on the analysis of the nature of scientific knowledge. Third, there was no significant difference in each grade's beliefs concerning the source of scientific knowledge or the role of the experiment.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2015

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.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.227-252
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• 2008

This study investigated the relation between social worker's beliefs on the nature of scientific knowledge which has been classified objectivism and constructivism and social work practice. As an epistemological position, constructivism is based on a view of knowledge that differs from that of objectivism, which holds that knowledge exists "out there" as objective truth. The focus of this paper is a examination on epistemological beliefs of social worker and social work practice. This paper proves that social work's epistemological beliefs have an effect on the practice modes. This research indicates that social works have a higher constructivist veiws than objectivist veiws on the nature of scientific knowledge. And social worker who have a high level of objectivism show a positive determinative mode. It has suggested that the constructive theory offers useful epistemology to the social worker who should deal with the clients in uncertain situations. In conclusion, a social worker with a high level of constructivism use an approach that creats a more equitable relationship between social worker and client. This perspective will allows cliens to participate in the formulation of theories in practice.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.638-644
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' views on the scientific model and to compare their views by grade, gender, and achievement. Relationships between students' views on the scientific model and epistemological beliefs were also investigated. Participants were 137 8th- and 112 11th-graders in Seoul. The results indicated that the students' views on the scientific model, on the whole, were adequate except the items concerning the 'models as exact replicas'. Male students or high-achieving students had more adequate views on the scientific model than female students or low-achieving students. However, there was no significant difference between 8th- and 11th-graders. In correlation analysis, students with inappropriate views on the scientific model were found to have traditional epistemological beliefs.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2002

This study investigated preservice science teachers' understandings of philosophical foundations(i.e., ontological and epistemological beliefs) underlying constructivist notions of learning. The teacher education program these subjects participated in explicitly addressed philosophical notions consistent with different views of constructivism. For these preservice science teachers, the program provided them with the opportunity to reflect upon the implications that their ontological and epistemological commitments had for their role as a science teacher. Data from four in-depth interviews were used to explore changes in each preservice science teacher's ontological beliefs, epistemological commitments, and pedagogical preferences. Results indicated that ontological beliefs and epistemological commitments were not necessarily consistent with conceptions of science teaching and learning for these preservice teachers. While some students internalized idealist and relativist perspectives, they did not integrate these relativist epistemological views into their preferred instructional practices. Also, regarding the fallible and tentative nature of knowledge, data in this study indicated that participants' epistemological beliefs about scientific Knowledge did influence how they were thinking about their roles as science teachers. Implications for teacher education programs and research on preservice science teacher's philosophical beliefs are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.167-178
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore characteristics of sixth grade students' opistemological beliefs in science and the relationship to learner's characteristics: learning motivation, learning strategies, and logical thinking. The subjects were 265 sixth graders and data was collected through two types of questionnaires, translated and modified by researchers: opistemological beliefs regarding science, learning motivation & strategies. The results of this study were as follows. The students believed that the goals of science were related to activations such as 'Science is experiment', or 'Science is invention: These beliefs were connected with the emphasis of science classes or the focus of the science curriculum. However, the students' beliefs related to the changeability of science knowledge, the source of science knowledge, and the role of experiments in developing knowledge were oriented to modern opistemological views. Moreover, the beliefs were meaningfully related to students' characteristics: learning motivation, learning strategies, and logical thinking. Among the students' characteristics, logical thinking was especially related to all of the factors of students' beliefs: the changeability of science knowledge, the source of science knowledge, and the role of experiments in developing knowledge. However, the students who believed that scientific knowledge came from scientists, science teachers, or science textbooks had high levels of self-efficacy. Therefore, the belief that scientific knowledge is formed by self-discovery, in order to generate high self-efficacy, needs to be encouraged. From the results, it is possible to check the orientation of current science education based on the students' opistemological beliefs. In addition, the resources can be accumulated for persevering in our efforts to achieve a positive orientation for science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.499-518
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• 2004

This study focused on research that illustrates the important interplay between learners' epistemological beliefs about science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge and knowing physics in the classroom. Also this study investigated learners' conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy. To explore these topics, six sophomores were chosen as participants. Three categories were introduced to classify how participants' understanding of the nature of science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge has been linked with epistemological beliefs of knowing physics. The three categories were (1)receiving physics knowledge as authority, (2)receiving physics knowledge as the perception of teacher's role and (3)understanding physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas. These categories were also concerned with construction of individual conceptions of mechanical energy. The participants who understood physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas naturally used metacognitive strategy in classroom compared to other participants. And they had scientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy. Others who were passive in classroom had unscientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy due to definition of energy and epistemological beliefs about the nature of science knowledge. In the process of their conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy, it was important to understand an instrumental aspect of scientific knowledge and to think about the relation between formulae and physical phenomena.