A Preliminary Study Of High School Students Epistemological Beliefs

Epistemological beliefs are the internal learning context of students, and they are a reciprocally independent belief system. Students' belief about knowledge and knowing is the core dimensions of individual epistemology, and students' beliefs about learning, instruction and ability are the peripheral dimensions. Students' epistemological beliefs may influence the learning process and learning outcome, and is also related to lifelong learning. By studying students' epistemological beliefs, we can research the cognitive mechanism of learning, which in turn, can provide the insight and direction to learning and instruction.In this article we introduce the research history and various developing theory of epistemological beliefs, and then, we analyze and review the corrational research between epistemological beliefs and learning both at home and abroad. On this basis, we make a systematic research of high school students' epistemological beliefs in our country. First, we validate Schommer's multidimensional epistemological beliefs model; then we administer open-end questionnaire to high school students, and equipped with the semi-structured interview, we develop a scientific epistemological beliefs questionnaire, which fits for our high school students; finally we examine the relations of epistemological beliefs, self-regulated learning and learning performance by using the instrument we developed. The conclusions are as follows:Epistemological beliefs are a multidimensional system of beliefs, which has several independent epistemological dimensions, and the content of each dimension may be influenced by cultural factors. In our research we find three epistemological dimensions: integral-constructive belief, separated-receptive belief, and ability belief.There are no significant gender differences in each epistemological dimension and the whole epistemological beliefs. There are significant grade differences in integral-constructive belief, ability belief and the whole epistemological beliefs. There are significant school differences in each epistemological dimension and the whole epistemological beliefs.There is a significant correlation between epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning, and each epistemological dimension can predict students' self-regulation in learning. Integral-constructive belief is significantly related to learning performance, and it can directly predict learning performance. Separated-receptive belief and ability belief influence learning performance through self-regulated learning, but their role is weak.