How do pupils' beliefs about learning affect their understanding of physics?

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Science
Thinking skills

Authors

Stathopoulou, C & Vosniadou, S.

Publisher

Contemporary Educational Psychology 21 pp. 255-281

Introduction

Previous research suggests that epistemological beliefs, that is, our conceptualisation and understanding of what knowledge is and what it means, has a direct impact on how we learn. Evidence from this research has described two types of epistemological perspectives which may affect learning:

relativists - who perceive knowledge as context dependent. This group is good at comprehension monitoring and comprehension strategies; and
dualists - who perceive knowledge as factual (in that it is either right or wrong). This group can exhibit poor text comprehension in the social and physical sciences.

The researchers attempted to test the potential contribution of these models in physics. The researchers' aim was to explore the relationship between:

students' epistemological beliefs (such as the nature of physics knowledge - are physics concepts definite and fixed or tentative and changing); and
their conceptual understanding of physics. They found that students' attitudes to knowledge can affect their ability to learn physics and that students with a more sophisticated attitude to knowledge had a distinct advantage in learning.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What did the research discover about students' ability to learn physics? What attitudes to knowledge appear to affect the learning of physics? How might students' beliefs about knowledge affect their understanding? How was the study designed? What are the implications for practitioners? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To find out more about collated digests click here Get Word Reader How do pupils' beliefs about learning affect their understanding of physics? This digest found in Science Thinking skills Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later Authors Stathopoulou, C & Vosniadou, S. Publisher Contemporary Educational Psychology 21 pp. 255-281 Introduction Previous research suggests that epistemological beliefs, that is, our conceptualisation and understanding of what knowledge is and what it means, has a direct impact on how we learn. Evidence from this research has described two types of epistemological perspectives which may affect learning: relativists - who perceive knowledge as context dependent. This group is good at comprehension monitoring and comprehension strategies; and dualists - who perceive knowledge as factual (in that it is either right or wrong). This group can exhibit poor text comprehension in the social and physical sciences. The researchers attempted to test the potential contribution of these models in physics. The researchers' aim was to explore the relationship between: students' epistemological beliefs (such as the nature of physics knowledge - are physics concepts definite and fixed or tentative and changing); and their conceptual understanding of physics. They found that students' attitudes to knowledge can affect their ability to learn physics and that students with a more sophisticated attitude to knowledge had a distinct advantage in learning.