Epistemic Beliefs

Learner Variable · All learner variables
Evidence · 36 claims (24 show a difference, 9 mixed, 3 no difference) · 21 studies (5 associational, 4 design, 3 review, 3 qualitative, 2 causal, 2 quant-synthesis, 2 theoretical), q1–q3 · 1 of 21 report an effect size · 36 claims rest on one study

Description

Epistemic (or epistemological) beliefs are what a learner takes knowledge and knowing to be. Learners who see knowledge as certain, simple and given by authority tend to read conflicting sources less critically and to expect quick answers; learners who see it as tentative and evidence-based integrate sources and argue more. Beliefs are measured by questionnaires and interviews and vary by domain. They predict comprehension of conflicting texts and argumentation, moderate inquiry-based designs, and are an outcome that instruction in the nature of science or in sourcing can change.

Implications

Context

• Matters most in tasks with conflicting sources, inquiry, and argument from evidence.
• Questionnaire measures are weak; interview and task-based measures are more trusted.

Target Learners

• Learners new to inquiry or to reading multiple sources critically.

Target Learning Objectives

• Multiple-source comprehension, argumentation, understanding of the nature of science.

Claims

• Both instructional conditions produced statistically significant pre-test to post-test gains in NOS and SK views, with larger effect sizes in the experimental group [+M] — instruction changes it
• Cognitive Maturity disposition scores significantly declined during the WISE Agent intervention, interpreted as de-centering of naive optimism [+M] — instruction changes it
• Collaborative critique-and-redesign instruction shifts students from a value-free view of objectivity toward a procedural one [+M] — instruction changes it
• Distributed epistemic agency emerges as learners attribute authority to AI outputs and shift responsibility for knowledge validation, though some engage dialogically [~M] — instruction changes it
• Four contexts of mathematics teacher education described the experiences most influential to the preservice teacher's evolving philosophy of mathematics [+W] — instruction changes it
• Heterogeneity-seeking modeling curricula surface epistemic commitments in most students, including care-based commitments absent from prior frameworks [+M] — instruction changes it
• In one nonequivalent-groups study of pre-school prospective teachers, the group taught with formative assessment embedded in explicit-reflective instruction scored higher on post-test NOS and SK than the group taught with explicit-reflective instruction alone [+W] — instruction changes it
• Mixed-disciplinary teacher making supports transdisciplinary epistemic liberation [+W] — instruction changes it
• Neither group showed a significant decline from post-test to retention test on NOS or SK measures [-M] — instruction changes it
• Reflective thinking dimensions correlate positively with learning process/expert knowledge, and most correlate positively with learning effort and negatively with innate/fixed ability and certainty of knowledge [+W] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• The formative-assessment-embedded group retained higher NOS and SK scores than the control group on a retention test four weeks after the intervention [+M] — instruction changes it
• Underuse of effective strategies may stem from false beliefs, lack of awareness, and the counter-intuitive nature of the strategies [+W] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Added interpretive support did not significantly affect the evolution of student teachers' educational beliefs [-M] — instruction changes it
• Immersion in IBL improves student teachers' self-reported understanding of the interpretative nature of historical research [+M] — instruction changes it
• Immersion in inquiry-based learning significantly increases student teachers' value for procedural knowledge goals and self-efficacy for inquiry, but not substantive knowledge goals [~M] — instruction changes it
• The impact of immersion in IBL on beliefs varies significantly across individual students, with about 8% holding content-oriented beliefs largely unaffected [~M] — an instructional effect differs with it
• Among students choosing multiplist and evaluatist assumptions, 11th-grade students were more likely than eighth-grade students to justify their views with pragmatic and evidential criteria of knowing [~M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Eighth- and 11th-grade students do not differ statistically significantly in their choice of epistemic assumptions about model evaluation, although a higher percentage of 11th graders chose the evaluatist assumption [-M] — instruction changes it
• The context of model-evaluation questions significantly influenced students' epistemic views, with fewer than half of students giving consistent answers across the SARS and dinosaur-extinction contexts [~M] — instruction changes it
• The dinosaur-extinction context evoked concerns about the value of knowledge and the limits of scientific methods, shaping students' model-evaluation justifications in context-specific ways [~M] — instruction changes it
• Epistemic beliefs, prior knowledge, and the think-aloud emotion of anger jointly predict low-epistemic processing during reading of the other-side text [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Participants with evaluativist epistemic beliefs are more likely to write two-sided reports than those with absolutist or multiplist epistemic beliefs [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Learning patterns are associated with personal factors (personality, motivation, beliefs, prior education, age, gender); their associations with personality are weak to moderate, indicating learning patterns are not stable traits [+W] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• A positive relation exists between the level of sophistication of epistemic belief profiles and understanding of the control-of-variables strategy [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Training facilitates belief change particularly when it encourages reflection of beliefs and teachers gain practical experience in inclusive classrooms [~M] — instruction changes it
• Inaccurate prior beliefs undermine readers' ability to question online misinformation [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Preservice teachers with placements promoting successful constructivist science teaching were more likely to report evaluativist personal epistemologies [+M] — instruction changes it
• Quasi-experimental and experimental interventions can positively change epistemic cognition, but the theory-of-change remains unidentified [+M] — instruction changes it
• Cognitive conflict induced by refutational texts and conflicting perspectives may promote epistemic belief change in student teachers [~M] — instruction changes it
• Explicit reflection on epistemic beliefs during science units has been followed by changes in student teachers' epistemic beliefs [+M] — instruction changes it
• Student teachers' beliefs about sources of knowledge predict their learning approaches and motivation in teacher education [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Prior knowledge and epistemic self-efficacy as an evaluator of knowledge are important themes in detecting and efficiently resolving conceptual discrepancies [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• University students adapt their behavioral processing of discrepant science content as a function of their epistemic cognition and discrepancy type [+M] — learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Absolute epistemic beliefs increase over the study period among computer science undergraduates [+M] — instruction changes it
• Epistemic beliefs develop differently across disciplines: absolute beliefs rise in computer science while multiplistic beliefs rise then fall in psychology [~M] — instruction changes it
• Multiplistic epistemic beliefs among psychology undergraduates follow an inversely U-shaped trajectory [+M] — instruction changes it

The evidence by question

• Can instruction shift learners' views of how scientific knowledge is made and judged, and do the shifts last? Both instructional conditions produced statistically significant pre-test to post-test gains in NOS and SK views, with larger effect sizes in the experimental group [+M]
• Do learners' beliefs about knowledge go with how they think and study, and with the kind of help they want? Reflective thinking dimensions correlate positively with learning process/expert knowledge, and most correlate positively with learning effort and negatively with innate/fixed ability and certainty of knowledge [+M]

Related Learner Variables

• Self-Regulation
• Prior Knowledge
• Mindset

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	learner-variable
id	epistemic-beliefs
title	Epistemic Beliefs
description	A learner's beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing: whether knowledge is certain or tentative, simple or complex, handed down by authority or built from evidence.
status	review
canonical	True
generated	by claude/unspecified on 2026-10-15
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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