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Identifying and Examining Epistemic Beliefs among College Students in Hong Kong

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Abstract

This study aimed to identify the four key dimensions of epistemic beliefs that concern the nature of knowledge and knowing and examine their relationship with cognitive constructs, study approaches, and academic performance among Hong Kong college students. A 14-item scale was developed in three studies with independent samples of Hong Kong college students (n = 250, 466, and 373, respectively). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the hypothesized four-factor model of epistemic beliefs consisting of Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Results indicated that all four dimensions of epistemic beliefs were associated with Effort Regulation; students with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs were less likely to employ the Surface Approach; and epistemic beliefs predicted both coursework and examination performance, whereas both Surface and Deep Approaches did not. The present study supported a model of epistemic beliefs focusing on the nature of knowledge and knowing that pertains to Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Implications of the findings in relation to understanding epistemic beliefs in cross-cultural contexts are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based on research conducted by the first author, in partial fulfillment of a Ph.D. degree, under the supervision of the second author. Portions of the work were presented at the Annual Conference of American Education in Denver, USA in 2009. The authors would like to thank Dr. Doris Leung for statistical advice; the two reviewers and Dr. Jan VanAalst for valuable comments in earlier drafts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, China

    Wincy W. S. Lee

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Carol K. K. Chan

Authors
  1. Wincy W. S. Lee
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  2. Carol K. K. Chan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wincy W. S. Lee.

Appendix

Appendix

14-Item Epistemic Beliefs Questionnaire

  1. (1)

    Everyone has to believe what experts say. (Source)

  2. (2)

    All questions have one right answer. (Certainty)

  3. (3)

    What is true today will be true tomorrow. (Certainty)

  4. (4)

    Whatever the teacher says in class is true. (Source)

  5. (5)

    There are some questions that even experts cannot answer. (Complexity)

  6. (6)

    Once experts have an answer for a question and that will be the only answer. (Certainty)

  7. (7)

    New discoveries can change what we think is true. (Complexity)

  8. (8)

    Only experts know for sure what is true. (Source)

  9. (9)

    Answer to questions is either right or wrong. (Certainty)

  10. (10)

    Good ideas can come from anybody; not just from experts. (Complexity)

  11. (11)

    There is no need to find more evidence to support well-known theories. (Justification)

  12. (12)

    New ideas can come from your own questions and experiments. (Complexity)

  13. (13)

    Theories that confirm my own opinion are good theories. (Justification)

  14. (14)

    Personal feelings are a good source of evidence to judge the goodness of theories. (Justification)

Note Higher scores in all dimensions reflect an endorsement of naive epistemic beliefs except in the dimension of Complexity. To facilitate readership, the three dimensions were reversed, scored in the direction of sophistication, which means that higher scores imply more sophisticated beliefs.

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Lee, W.W.S., Chan, C.K.K. Identifying and Examining Epistemic Beliefs among College Students in Hong Kong. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 24, 603–612 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0206-1

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