relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning

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Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 817–831

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Relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptionsabout teaching and learning

Kwok-Wai Chana,�, Robert G. Elliottb

aDepartment of Educational Psychology, Counselling and Learning Needs, School of Foundations in Education, Hong Kong Institute of

Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong KongbInternational Development, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus, Victoria Park Road,

Kelvin Grove, Brisbane Qld 4059, Australia

Abstract

Four epistemological belief and two teaching and learning conception dimensions were identified from a survey study

of a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students. The epistemological belief dimensions were labeled Innate/Fixed

Ability, Learning Effort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge. The results on

epistemological beliefs were somewhat different from Schommer’s findings with North American college students

and reflected the influence of cultural contexts. The two teaching and learning conceptions were labelled Traditional

and Constructivist Conceptions. Pearson correlation analysis showed significant relations between Innate/Fixed

Ability, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge with Traditional Conception and Learning Effort/

Process with Constructivist Conception. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed the possible causal effect of

epistemological beliefs on conceptions about teaching and learning. All these analyses tended to support the suggested

views in literature that teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning are beliefs driven. Implications were drawn

for future research in teacher education with respect to the relation of epistemological beliefs and teaching/learning

conceptions in different cultures.

r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Epistemological beliefs; Conceptions about teaching and learning; Relational analysis; Culture; Hong Kong

1. Introduction

Researchers in teacher education have suggestedthat teachers’ classroom behaviour and activities

e front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserv

te.2004.09.002

ng author. Tel.: +852 2948 7790; fax:

.

sses: [email protected] (K.-W. Chan),

u.au (R.G. Elliott).

are shaped by various frameworks. These areknown by various labels such as implicit theories,conceptions, images and metaphors (Calderhead,1996; Marland, 1995, 1998; Munby, 1986; Ri-chardson, 1996) but, irrespective of names, theyrepresent teachers’ conceptions about teaching andlearning which are assumed to be belief driven(Clark & Peterson, 1986; Marland, 1995, 1998;Richardson, 1996). While these beliefs have been

ed.

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K.-W. Chan, R.G. Elliott / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 817–831818

examined through narrative enquiries and casestudies, there is no empirical research reportingquantitative measures of the relations betweenteachers’ beliefs and conceptions about teachingand learning. Quantitative studies of such relation-ships, in particular the causal relations of teachers’beliefs and conceptions, have the potential toinform teachers’ conceptions and hence theoreticalframeworks about teaching and learning.

2. Epistemological beliefs and conceptions about

teaching and learning

Since the late 80s, there has been a growingliterature on teachers’ beliefs (Fang, 1996), includ-ing beliefs about education, beliefs about teachingand learning, and beliefs about teacher efficiency(teacher efficacy). Numerous studies confirm thatthere are strong connections among teachers’beliefs, their classroom behaviours, and the learn-ing environment (Brown & Rose, 1995; Kagan,1992; Nespor, 1987). There are varied opinions,however, as to the extent to which preserviceteachers’ beliefs may be altered by trainingand experience. Pajares (1992) contends thatpreservice teachers usually adhere to establishedbeliefs unless they view teacher educators asrespected authorities, and are strongly challengedby new ideas that better explain their experiences(Austin & Reinhardt, 1999). Understandingand clarification of beliefs held by preserviceteachers are considered significant by researchersand teacher educators in teacher professionaldevelopment.However, research on beliefs about the nature of

knowledge and knowledge acquisition (epistemo-logical beliefs) is not plentiful. Recently, there hasbeen a growing interest in understanding whatteachers believe about the nature of knowledgeand learning (known as epistemological beliefs)(Flores, 2001; Howard, McGee, Schwartz, &Purcell, 2000; Schommer, 1990) and how thesebeliefs, or epistemologies, affect curriculum im-plementation and instructional approaches (Hofer& Pintrich, 1997; Prawat, 1992). Literally, episte-mology is an area of philosophy concerned withthe nature and justification of human knowledge.

Lately, psychologists and educators have becomeinterested in personal epistemological developmentand epistemological beliefs, including how indivi-duals come to know, the theories and beliefs theyhold about knowing, and the influence of episte-mological beliefs on the cognitive processes ofthinking and reasoning (see review by Hofer &Pintrich, 1997).Schommer (1994) was a prime advocate of such

research. She proposed that personal epistemologyis a belief system consisting of five more or lessindependent dimensions: the structure, certainty,and source of knowledge and the control andspeed of knowledge acquisition (Schommer, 1990,1994). In Schommer’s hypothetical framework,epistemological beliefs vary along a continuum,from naive to sophisticated beliefs. A teacher whoholds naive epistemologies generally believes thatknowledge is simple, clear and specific; knowledgeresides in authorities and is certain and unchan-ging; concepts are learned quickly or not at all andlearning ability is innate and fixed. A teacher whoholds sophisticated epistemologies along the fivedimensions believes that knowledge is complex,uncertain and tentative; knowledge can be learnedgradually through reasoning processes and can beconstructed by the learner (Howard et al., 2000;Schommer, 1994). Schommer’s (1990) dimensionsof epistemology are evident in the studies aboutteachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning (e.g.Samuelowiciz & Bain, 1992).Schommer and others have suggested that

epistemological beliefs are related to meta-cogni-tive activities such as reading comprehension,including comprehension monitoring, interpreta-tion of information (Kardash & Scholes, 1996;Schommer, 1990; Schommer, Crouse, & Rhodes,1992), mathematics problem solving (Schoenfeld,1985) and persistence in the face of a difficult task(Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Qian & Alvermann,1995). Teacher epistemological beliefs/epistemol-ogy has been found to affect teachers’ use ofteaching strategies and their openness to studentalternative conceptions (Hashweh, 1996).As part of everyday interactions, a teacher has

to make many decisions that influence his/herbehaviour. Such decision making is meta-cognitivein nature and is probably affected by the

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K.-W. Chan, R.G. Elliott / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 817–831 819

classroom context and the teacher’s beliefs aboutthe nature of knowledge and knowledge acquisition.Research (Eisner, 1992; Pajares, 1992) has

suggested that educational beliefs or value orienta-tions appear to play an influential role in teacherjudgements about what knowledge is relevant to aparticular situation. Further, such beliefs andvalues lead teachers to select and store informationthey consider most relevant and useful (Ennis,Cothran, & Loftus, 1997). From this, it may bededuced that there may be particular relationsbetween teachers’ epistemological beliefs and theirconceptions about teaching and learning. Identifi-cation of such relations, including causal relations,could be valuable in supporting researchers’ claimsthat teachers’ theoretical frameworks are beliefsdriven (e.g. Clark & Peterson, 1986; Marland,1995, 1998; Richardson, 1996). Teacher educatorsmay also make use of the relations betweenepistemological beliefs and conceptions aboutteaching and learning to effect desirable changeswithin student teachers. Teacher educators couldhelp student teachers make their epistemologicalbeliefs explicit and help them to articulate howtheir beliefs affect conceptions about teaching andlearning.Nevertheless, there is no empirical research

reported in the literature on the relationshipsbetween epistemological beliefs and teachers’conceptions about teaching and learning, leavingthis important area unexplored.This paper seeks to address this identified gap in

professional knowledge. It does so by reporting ona study of the relations between epistemologicalbeliefs and conceptions about teaching and learn-ing held by Hong Kong teacher educationstudents. The following three research questionsare explored.

1.
What are the epistemological beliefs held by theHong Kong teacher education students?
2.
What are the conceptions about teaching andlearning held by the Hong Kong teachereducation students?
3.
What are the relations between Hong Kongteacher education students’ epistemologicalbeliefs and their conceptions about teachingand learning?
In exploring these questions, epistemological
beliefs are defined to be beliefs about the nature ofknowledge and knowing/learning. The definitionwas adopted from Schommer (1990, 1994) and thisdefinition has been commonly used by otherresearchers (e.g. Hofer & Pintrich, 1997; Howardet al., 2000; Jehng, Johnson, & Anderson, 1993).In the definition, knowing means knowledgeacquisition and is considered the same as learning,and these terms have been interchangeably used byresearchers in epistemological beliefs studies (e.g.Hofer, 2000, 2001; Hofer & Pintrich, 1997;Howard et al., 2000; Jehng et al., 1993; Schommer,1990, 1994).The conceptions about teaching and learning
refer to the beliefs held by teachers about theirpreferred ways of teaching and learning. Theseinclude the meaning of teaching and learning andthe roles of teacher and pupils. Often, theconceptions about teaching and learning areassociated with two learning models: traditional/transmissive and progressive/constructivistmodes of learning. The constructivist learningmodel is often contrasted to the transmissive/traditional learning model. The constructivistlearning model/conception emphasizes thecreation of active learning environmentsthat permit critical thinking, discovery, andcollaboration. In contrary, the traditional/transmissive learning model views the teacher asthe source of knowledge and students as passiverecipients of knowledge. Such model/conceptionemphasizes learning by receiving information,especially from the teacher and from textbooks,to help students encounter and learn well-defined concepts (Howard et al., 2000; Prawat,1992). The constructivist mode of learning may beassociated with teachers having sophisticatedepistemologies, and an orientation to the tradi-tional/transmissive conception may be reflectiveof teachers holding naive epistemologies asso-ciated with omniscient authority and certainknowledge. It is likely that Schommer’s sophisti-cated epistemologies are parallel to a constructivistconception, while Schommer’s naive epistemolo-gies are parallel to a traditional/transmissiveconception. An exploratory study of therelationships between epistemological beliefs and

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conceptions about teaching and learning may helpvalidate these assumptions.

3. Method

A survey study was conducted with a group ofHong Kong teacher education students drawnthrough convenience sampling. Two question-naires were administered to 385 teacher educationstudents of a tertiary institution in Hong Kong onthe same occasion. The first questionnaire wasdesigned to measure epistemological beliefs andthe second questionnaire to examine the concep-tions about teaching and learning held by thestudents. Students were also asked to supplyvarious demographic data such as age, genderand electives studied in completing the question-naire. The following sections give a brief descrip-tion of the development and content of the twoquestionnaire instruments.

3.1. Participants

A sample consisting of 385 volunteer teachereducation students of the Certificate in Education(CE) Course in a tertiary institution in Hong Kongwas used in the study. There are two streams of theCE Course: the English and the Chinese Course.The age ranged from 19 to 40, mostly around 21(28.1%) and 22 (30.9%). There were 115 male and263 female students (with seven missing cases).The CE Course is a 2-year full-time sub-degreecourse for training non-graduate teachers for theprimary and junior secondary levels. The admis-sion requirement of the 2-year full-time CE courseis two Advanced Level subjects pass, similar to theadmission requirement of the universities in HongKong. Therefore, the teacher education studentsof this study were equivalent to the universityundergraduates.

3.1.1. Procedures

Students were asked to rate their responses forthe items in both the epistemological beliefsquestionnaire (EBQ) and teaching and learningconceptions questionnaire (TLCQ) on a five-

point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree and5=Strongly Agree).Before completing the questionnaires, the parti-

cipants were briefed about the direction andpurpose of the study, viz. the significance ofexploring their epistemological beliefs and concep-tions about teaching and learning, which wouldfacilitate their professional development in teach-ing practice.The survey instrument consisted of two ques-

tionnaires (Parts A and B in order) and ademographic section asking students to supplytheir demographic data such as age, gender andelectives studied before completing the question-naire. The first questionnaire (Part A) was tomeasure the epistemological beliefs and the secondquestionnaire (Part B) was to examine theconceptions about teaching and learning held bythe Hong Kong teacher education students. Part Aconsisted of 45 items and Part B 35 items. Thequestionnaires were administered once andstudents were asked to complete the twoquestionnaires by rating the likert scale items andthe demographic section altogether in classwithout taking the instruments home. The follow-ing sections give a brief description of thedevelopment and content of the two questionnaireinstruments.

3.2. Research instruments

3.2.1. Epistemological beliefs questionnaire (EBQ)

The EBQ was adapted from Schommer’s 63-item questionnaire which, in turn, was developedfrom her theoretical framework of five epistemo-logical belief dimensions, viz. Innate/Fixed Abil-ity, Omniscient Authority, Certain Knowledge,Simple Knowledge and Quick Learning (Schom-mer, 1994). In exploratory factor analysis, Schom-mer’s studies with North American collegestudents only extracted four factors from theproposed five. The factor or dimension ‘Omnis-cient Authority’ was not extracted (Schommer,1990, 1993a, b). A preliminary study by theauthors using Schommer’s 63-item question-naire and her 12 conceptual subscales asvariables in factor analysis for a sample ofHong Kong students raised doubt on the applic-

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ability of Schommer’s questionnaire in theHong Kong context. The authors argued for amodification of Schommer’s questionnairefor use in the Hong Kong context (Chan & Elliott,2000).Repeated studies through adapting Schommer’s

63-item questionnaire and following thestrategies suggested by Burnettt and Dart (1997),Fanshawe and Burnett (1991) were undertaken.This process resulted in a 45-item question-naire. Factor analysis study of the 45-itemquestionnaire extracted four factors or dimen-sions, comprising 30 loaded items with factorloading of .30 or above. The four dimensions werelabelled Innate/Fixed Ability, Learning Effort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Cer-tainty Knowledge. Each dimension can be con-ceived as a continuum with two extremities orpolarities. For example, Innate/Fixed Abilityrefers to ability being innate and fixed at oneextreme, while at the other extreme ability isseen as changeable. Learning Effort/Processrefers to hard work, and effort spent indrilling at one extreme or understanding at theother. Authority/Expert Knowledge refers toknowledge being handed down by authorityfigures and experts at one end, or knowledgebeing obtained through one’s justification andreasoning at the other. Certainty Knowledgerefers to whether knowledge is certain, perma-nent and unchanged for one pole or tentativeand ever-changing at the other. The internalconsistency of the four extracted factors/sub-scales was satisfactory (Cronbach lphas rangingfrom .6 to .7). The 30-item extracted scalewas validated by confirmatory factor ana-lysis with satisfactory goodness of fitindex (GFI=.93, AGFI=.90, RMSEA=.058,RMR=.064). The developmental details of theEBQ instrument was reported elsewhere (Chan &Elliott, 2002).For illustrative purposes, some items of the

EBQ are given below.

Dimensions
Items
Innate/Fixed

Ability

There isn’t much you can doto make yourself smarter asyour ability is fixed at birth

One’s innate ability limitswhat one can learn.

Learning Effort/

Process

If people can’t understandsomething right away, theyshould keep on trying.
Knowing how to learn is moreimportant than the acquiredfacts.
Authority/Expert

Knowledge

Sometimes, I don’t believe thefacts in textbooks written byauthorities.
Even advice from expertsshould often be questioned.
Certainty

Knowledge

Scientists will ultimately get tothe truth if they keepsearching for it.
Scientific knowledge is certainand does not change.
3.2.2. Teaching and learning conceptions

questionnaire (TLCQ)

The Teaching and Learning Conceptions ques-tionnaire (TLCQ) was developed by the authorsbased on a literature review of prevailing concep-tions about teaching and learning, and dialogueswith Hong Kong students before teaching prac-tice. This literature (Dunkin & Precians, 1992;Samuelowiciz et al., 1992; Shuell, 1986, 1996)generally refers to two different conceptions of theteaching/learning nexus. These may be referred toas Traditional and Constructivist. In the Tradi-tional Conception, teaching is seen as a non-problematic transfer of knowledge or an untrans-formed manner from an expert to a novice.Learning is then the absorption of this. In theConstructivist Conception, learning is the creationand acquisition of knowledge by the learnerthrough reasoning and justification. Teaching is aprovision and facilitation of the learning processrather than transmission of knowledge. In con-structing the instrument various questionnaireitems used different studies, seeking to clarifythese conceptions (see Bramald, Hardman, & Leat,1995; Dunkin & Precians, 1992; Tatto, 1996). Inaddition to drawing on this literature, the authors

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conducted dialogues with teacher education stu-dents about their concerns, thoughts and beliefsabout teaching and learning (Chan, 1999), andthese were used as a further source of items used inthis study. Important here were issues such as themeaning of learning and teaching, roles ofteachers and pupils in the learning and teaching,class management, teaching and learningstrategies, e.g. ‘‘requiring pupils to memorize whatthe teacher taught’’, ‘‘individual desk work’’ or‘‘peer learning’’. From these two sources, a list ofitems to be included in the survey instrumentwas constructed. By conducting pilot studiesacross 12 months, with repeated processesof factor analysis, item identification/clarificationand interviews with students, a 35-item question-naire was eventually developed. Exploratoryfactor analysis of the response items yieldedtwo factors or subscales, with 30 items loadedwith factor loading of .30 or above. The Cronbachalpha values of the whole scale (30 items) andthe two subscales were good, about .86, .84and .84, respectively. The 30-item questionnaire/scale was validated by confirmatory factoranalysis with satisfactory goodness-of-fitindex (GFI=.93, AGFI=.91, RMSEA=.54,RMR=.50). The validated TLCQ was used toassess the conceptions of the teacher educationstudents in this study. The details of developingthe validated questionnaire or scale were reportedelsewhere (Chan, 2001).Again, some items in the developed question-

naire are noted below to assist in understandingthe scale.

Dimensions
Items
Constructivist

Conception

It is important that a teacherunderstands the feelings of thestudents.

Good teachers alwaysencourage students to thinkfor answers themselves.
Learning means students haveample opportunities toexplore, discuss and expresstheir ideas. Every child is unique orspecial and deserves an
education tailored to his orher particular needs.

Traditional

Conception

During the lesson, it isimportant to keep studentsconfined to the textbooks andthe desks.
Learning means rememberingwhat the teacher has taught. Good students keep quiet andfollow teacher’s instruction inclass. Good teaching occurs whenthere is mostly teacher talk inthe classroom.
4. Analysis

Statistical analysis of item responses indicatedthat there was no significant difference across age,gender and elective groups in epistemologicalbeliefs and in the conceptions about teaching andlearning. These ideas are reported elsewhere(Chan, 2001; Chan & Elliott, 2002). As one ofthe objectives of this study was to examine therelationship between students’ epistemologicalbeliefs and their conceptions about teaching andlearning, Pearson correlation analysis was applied,followed by Confirmatory factor analysis, tovalidate a structural model of the causal relationsof epistemological beliefs and conceptions aboutteaching and learning.

5. Results

5.1. Epistemological beliefs

Addressing the first of research questions,exploratory factor analysis (with eigenvalue great-er than 1 and scree plot test) was applied to theEBQ item responses. Only items with a factorloading equal to or greater than .3 were retained.Four factors were extracted representing thesubscales or dimensions of the epistemologicalbeliefs concept. According to the nature of theitems loaded on the factors, the four epistemolo-

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gical belief dimensions were labelled as Innate/Fixed Ability, Learning Effort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge. Thefactor structure of the epistemological beliefsconcept is shown in Table 1. The number of itemswhich constitutes the four subscales/dimensions,the reliabilities (Cronbach alphas), the means andstandard deviations of the four subscales/dimen-sions are given in Table 2.This resulting factor structure supported

Schommer’s proposal of multi-dimensional natureof epistemological beliefs, however, it differs fromSchommer’s proposal that epistemological beliefsconsist of a system of more or less independentdimensions (refer to Table 3 which shows correla-tion coefficients between pairs of epistemologicalbelief dimensions).This structure is similar to that reported by

Schommer in that a similar number of factors wasidentified, but the nature of the factors is different(Schommer, 1990, 1994). One of the differencesconcerns the dimension Authority/Expert Knowl-edge derived in the Hong Kong sample. As notedearlier in this paper, the dimension OmniscientAuthority was not extracted in Schommer’s earlierstudy with North American college students. Also,instead of the dimension Simple Knowledge andQuick Learning emerging as proposed from theliterature (and extracted in Schommer’s study), thisstudy extracted a combined factor consisting ofitems representing learning effort and learningprocess. The other dimensions, viz. Innate/FixedAbility and Certainty Knowledge, resembled thoseof Schommer’s findings. All these results reflect thepossible influence of different cultural contexts onthe epistemological beliefs. In this case, the differ-ences were between a Hong Kong Chinese (non-Western) context and the North American (Western)cultural contexts as reported in Schommer’s studies.

5.2. Teaching and learning Conceptions

Concerning the second research question, anexploratory factor analysis of the scale (with testsof eigenvalue greater than 1 and scree plot)extracted two factors. These were taken to be thedimensions of the teaching and learning conceptheld by the Hong Kong teacher education

students. According to the nature of loaded items,one factor was labelled Constructivist Conceptionand the other factor Traditional Conception. Thefactor structure of the teaching and learningconstruct (including loading values of items loadedon the two factors or dimensions of conceptionsabout teaching and learning) is shown in Table 4.The number of items which composed the twosubscales/dimensions, the reliabilities (Cronbachalphas), means and standard deviations of the twosubscales/dimensions are listed in Table 5.

5.3. Relation between epistemological beliefs and

conceptions of teaching and learning

Table 6 shows the Pearson correlation coeffi-cients between pairs of epistemological belief andteaching and learning conception dimensions. Itwas found that the Traditional Conception ofteaching and learning was positively and signifi-cantly related to three epistemological beliefdimensions, viz. Innate/Fixed Ability, Authority/Expert Knowledge, Certainty Knowledge at .01level. For Innate/Fixed Ability, r ¼ :395;p ¼ :000). For Authority/Expert Knowledge, r ¼

:402; p ¼ :000: For Certainty Knowledge, r ¼ :311;p ¼ :000: The Constructivist Conception wasfound to be positively related to Innate/FixedAbility (r ¼ :155; p ¼ :002) and Authority/ExpertKnowledge (r ¼ :218; p ¼ :000), but negativelyrelated to Learning Effort/Process (r ¼ �:392;p ¼ :000).Based on researchers’ notion and literature that

conceptions about teaching and learning arebeliefs driven, a structural equation model (SEM)was drawn and confirmatory factor analysis wasapplied to study a plausible hypothesis: the causalrelationship between epistemological beliefs andconceptions about teaching and learning. Theoverall relationships among the variables werefurther examined by path analysis. In the model, itwas assumed that epistemological beliefs influencethe conceptions about teaching and learning.Taking into consideration the Pearson correlationcoefficients in Table 6, the model hypothesizedthat Innate/Fixed Ability, Authority/ExpertKnowledge and Certainty Knowledge affect Tra-ditional Conception and Learning Effort/Process

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Table 1

Factor structure of epistemological beliefs of Hong Kong teacher education students (Pattern matrix: Oblimin rotation with

eigenvalues greater than 1.00 as cut-off (Chan & Elliott, 2002))

Question item Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4

A40 There isn’t much you can do to make yourself smarter as

your ability is fixed at birth

.55

A31 Our abilities to learn are fixed at birth .54

A15 One’s innate ability limits what one can do .48

A10 Some people are born good learners, others are just stuck

with limited abilities

.47

A30 Some children are born incapable of learning well in certain

subjects

.46

A5 The ability to learn is innate/inborn .44

A25 Students who begin school with ‘‘average’’ ability remain

‘‘average’’ throughout school

.44

A20 The really smart students don’t have to work hard to do well

in school

.42

A13 If people can’t understand something right away, they should

keep on trying

.54

A29 Knowing how to learn is more important than the acquired

facts

.48

A28 One learns little if one does not work hard .41

A42 Understanding course materials and thinking process are

more important than acquiring knowledge/facts

.40

A9 Everyone needs to learn how to learn .38

A24 people will learn better if they focus more on the process of

understanding rather than the facts to be acquired

.35

A8 Learning something really well takes a long time or much

effort

.33

A23 How much you get from yourlearning depends mostly on

your effort

.33

A3 Getting ahead takes a lot of work .33

A34 If one tries hard enough, then one will understand the course

material

.32

A19 Wisdom is not knowing the answers, but knowing how to

find the answers

.32

A1 Sometimes I don’t believe the facts in textbooks written by

authorities

.51

A11 Even advice from experts should often be questioned .49

A16 I often wonder how much experts really know .39

A38 I am very aware that teachers/lecturers know a lot more than

I do and so I agree with what they say is important is

important rather than rely on my own judgment

.33

A45 I still believe in what the experts say even though it differs

from what I know

.31

A26 I have no doubts in whatever the experts say .30

A17 Scientists will ultimately get to the truth if they keep

searching for it

�.72

A2 If scientists try hard enough, they can find the truth to almost

anything

�.56

A18 Any one can figure out difficult concepts if one works hard

enough

�.43

A12 I believe there should exist a teaching method applicable to

all learning situations

�.40

A22 Scientific knowledge is certain and does not change �.35


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Table 2

Reliabilities, means and standard deviations of identified

epistemological belief dimensions of Hong Kong teacher

education students

Epistemological beliefs Alpha Mean S.D.

Innate/Fixed Ability (8 items) .69 2.82 .49

Learning Effort/Process (11 items) .66 3.92 .35

Authority/Expert Knowledge (6 items) .58 2.62 .47

Certainty Knowledge (5 items) .60 2.62 .56

Table 3

Correlation coefficients of pairs of epistemological belief

dimensions

IA EFP AK CK

Innate/Fixed Ability 1 �.149** .245** .206**

Learning Effort/Process �.149** 1 �.064 .115*

Authority/Expert Knowledge .245** �.064 1 .260**

Certainty Knowledge .206** .115* .260** 1

*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).**Cor-

relation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).


and Authority/Expert Knowledge affect Construc-tivist Conception.Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to

examine the proposed SEM. A marginally satis-factory goodness of fit index was obtained for themodel (GFI=.86, AGFI=.84 , RMSEA=.055,RMR=.070). Path analysis (standardized pathcoefficients) shows significant effects of Innate/Fixed Ability (b ¼ :52; t ¼ 6:45; po:05), Author-ity/Expert Knowledge (b ¼ :61; t ¼ 5:88; po:05)and Certainty Knowledge (b ¼ :46; t ¼ 5:66;po:05) on Traditional Conception and LearningEffort/Process (b ¼ �:56; t ¼ �7:01; po:05) onConstructivist Conception. The paths from In-nate/Fixed Ability (b ¼ :064; t ¼ �:94; p4:05)and Authority/Expert Knowledge (b ¼ :036; t ¼

:47; p4:05) to Constructivist Conception wereinsignificant.The two non-significant paths (Innate/Fixed

Ability and Authority/Expert Knowledge to Con-structivist Conception) were then eliminated andthe goodness of fit indices were re-run. The paths

with standardized path coefficients (all significantat .05 level) linking epistemological beliefs andconceptions about teaching and learning in therevised model is shown in Fig. 1. In general, thegoodness of fit indices remained the same (e.g.GFI=.86, AGFI=.84, RMR=.007), althoughthere was a very slight improvement in some otherfit indices (e.g. RMSEA=.0052) and path coeffi-cients (e.g. Innate/Fixed Ability, b ¼ :55; t ¼ 7:28;po:05; Authority/ Expert Knowledge, b ¼ :63; t ¼

6:36; po:05).Thus, the result highlights a possible influence of

epistemological beliefs on the conceptions held bythe Hong Kong teacher education students aboutteaching and learning. The result suggests that itwould be appropriate to hypothesize a causalrelationship of epistemological beliefs on theconceptions of teaching and learning. Because thisstudy is essentially descriptive in nature, such ahypothesis deserves further consideration in otherresearch designs.

6. Discussion

In terms of the relative position of the meansubscale scores of the four epistemological beliefdimensions (Table 2) as above or below the mid-point 3 in the five-point rating scale, it is possibleto characterize the Hong Kong teacher educationstudents’ epistemological beliefs as follows. TheHong Kong teacher education students tended tobelieve that knowledge is acquired through one’seffort and the learning process (mean=3.92)rather than being handed down by authorityfigures or experts (mean=2.62). The Hong Kongteacher education students also tended not tobelieve that ability is inborn and fixed(mean=2.82), and they tended not to believe thatknowledge is certain and unchanged(mean=2.62). The value system in traditionalChinese culture could be one possible factor toaccount for the relative high mean score found inthe epistemological belief dimension, LearningEffort/Process. Confucian Chinese culture placedhigh value on education, effort and hardwork. Tothe Chinese, education and learning have alwaysbeen associated with effort. Effort or hardwork is

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Table 4

Factor structure of conceptions about teaching and learning held by Hong Kong teacher education students (Pattern matrix: Oblimin

rotation with eigenvalues greater than 1.00 as cut-off)

Question item Factor 1 Factor 2

B34 It is important that a teacher understands the feelings of the students .67

B22 Good teachers always encourage students to think for answers themselves .66

B35 Learning means students have ample opportunities to explore, discuss and

express their ideas

.65

B19 In good classrooms there is a democratic and free atmosphere which

stimulates students to think and interact

.63

B21 Every child is unique or special and deserves an education tailored to his or

her particular needs

.62

B7 Effective teaching encourages more discussion and hands on activities for

students

.58

B23 The focus of teaching is to help students construct knowledge from their

learning experience instead of knowledge communication

.55

B32 Instruction should be flexible enough to accommodate individual differences

among students

.54

B25 Different objectives and expectations in learning should be applied to different

students

.53

B13 Students should be given many opportunities to express their ideas .44

B1 The ideas of students are important and should be carefully considered .40

B31 Good teachers always make their students feel important .34

B16 A teacher’s major task is to give students knowledge/information, assign them

drill and practice, and test their recall

.59

B5 During the lesson, it is important to keep Students confined to the textbooks

and the desks

.56

B14 learning means remembering what the teacher has taught .56

B18 Good students keep quiet and follow teacher’s instruction in class .55

B20 The traditional/lecture method for teaching is best because it covers more

information/knowledge

.53

B24 It is best if teachers exercise as much authority as possible in the classroom .52

B11 Good teaching occurs when there is mostly teacher talk in the classroom .52

B17 Learning mainly involves absorbing as much information as possible .50

B12 Students have to be called on all the time to keep them under control .49

B26 Teaching is to provide students with accurate and complete knowledge rather

than encourage them to discover it

.46

B27 A teacher’s task is to correct learning misconceptions of students right away

instead of verify them for themselves

.43

B30 No learning can take place unless students are controlled .43

B6 Teachers should have control over what students do all the time .43

B28 Learning to teach simply means practicing the ideas from lecturers without

questioning them

.38

B9 I have really learned something when I can remember it later .37

B8 Teaching is simply telling, presenting or explaining the subject matter .37

B2 The major role of a teacher is to transmit knowledge to students.36

B4 Learning occurs primarily from drilling and practice .33


considered a very important attribute of a person’ssuccess, especially for academic achievement. Thishas been demonstrated in a number of attribution

studies with Hong Kong Chinese students (e.g.Hau & Salili, 1990, 1996). Chinese children arereared in an environment where effort, endurance,

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-0.55

0.55

0.63

0.46

Note:

Ebs: epistemological beliefs questionnaire items TLs: Conceptions about teachingand learning questionnaire items

IA: Innate/Fixed Ability TC: Traditional Conception

EFP: Learning Effort /Process CC: Constructivist Conception

EBs

EBs

EBs

EBs

IA

EFP

AK

CK

TC

CC

TLs

TLs


and hardwork are emphasized (Yang, 1986).People who attempt tasks beyond their abilityare admired and commended, rather than ridic-uled. ‘‘Knowing the impossibility of accomplish-ment but still working hard’’ is a highly praisedvirtue. People tend to emphasize the importance ofeffort rather than effort (Lau, 1996). The HongKong teacher education students represent ageneral ‘‘Chinese’’ orientation to beliefs associatedwith learning. Many of them are inclined towardsworking hard and learning how to learn. This mayaccount for the much higher rating (highest meansubscale score) and the smallest deviation withinthe respondents in favour of Learning Effort/Process in this study.The extraction of the dimension ‘Authority/

Expert Knowledge’ indicates the significance of thebelief in ‘‘Authority’’ in traditional Chineseculture. In such a culture, students are expectedto show respect for, and be obedient, to elders andauthority figures. It is expected that authorityfigures or experts hand down knowledge. Never-theless, Confucianism may be too narrow a focusfor understanding the behaviour of Chinesepeople. While teachers were considered knowl-edgeable and enjoyed a high status in school and

Table 5

Reliabilities, means and standard deviations of identified

conception dimensions of Hong Kong teacher education

students

Conceptions Alpha Mean S.D.

Constructivist Conception (12 items) .84 1.86 .36

Traditional Conception (18 items) .84 2.63 .46

Table 6

Pearson correlation analysis of the dimensions of epistemological bel

Dimensions of epistemological beliefs

Dimensions of

epistemological beliefs

about teaching &

learning

Innate/Fixed Ability Learning Effor

Constructivist .155** �.392**

Traditional .395** .000*

*Correlation is significant at 0.01 level (two-tailed).**Correlation is s

society in the traditional Chinese culture, therehave been changes in recent history, especially inHong Kong which has been exposed to bothChinese and western cultures and philosophy.Today’s teenagers and adolescents may not abideauthority figures as strongly as their parents did.The parenting style in Hong Kong has gradually

iefs and conceptions about teaching and learning (N ¼ 385)

t/Process Authority/Expert

Knowledge

Certainty Knowledge

.218** .025

.402** .311**

ignificant at 0.05 level (two-tailed).

AK: Authority/Expert Knowledge

CK: Certainty Knowledge

Fig. 1. Path analysis diagram and standardized path coeffi-

cients with non-significant paths eliminated. EBs: epistemolo-

gical beliefs questionnaire items; TLs: Conceptions about

teaching and learning questionnaire items; IA: Innate/Fixed

Ability; TC: Traditional Conception; EFP: Learning Effort/

Process; CC: Constructivist Conception; AK: Authority/Expert

Knowledge; CK: Certainty Knowledge.

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moved to become more liberal and authoritative.Children and teenagers are not forced to followwhat the elders say. Despite this trend, someteachers and lecturers continue the traditional wayof teaching and express themselves as authorityfigures of the subjects they teach (Watkins &Biggs, 1996). The educational reform in HongKong drives school and university teaching toencourage students to do more reflective thinkinginstead of mere memorization work. The existingtraditional Chinese culture and philosophy and theinteraction with western influences might be anexplanation for the relatively lower mean scoreand large range (minimum 1.00 and maximum4.67) in the belief of ‘Authority/Expert Knowl-edge’ compared to those of ‘Learning Effort/Process’ and ‘Innate/Fixed Ability’.The finding that Hong Kong teacher education

students tended not to believe in ‘CertaintyKnowledge’ is in line with previous studiesconducted by other researchers such as Perry(1968), Ryan (1984) and Schommer (1990,1993a, b). Perry (1968) and Schommer (1993a, b)both suggested that younger students usually holdmore naı̈ve beliefs about the nature of knowledge;that is, they believe knowledge is certain andunambiguous. As they grow older and develop,students start to adopt a more sophisticatedviewpoint toward knowledge and believe knowl-edge is changing and tentative. The Hong Kongteacher education students in this study could beconsidered similar to North American collegestudents in this respect. Some were in a transitionstage of development of epistemological beliefsand some had already passed through the naı̈vestage. Thus, there was a spread of beliefswithin the students. Since the majority of thestudents (92.7%) were in the age range of 20–25and about 1.6% below 20, this might accountfor the relatively lower mean value (2.62)

concerning the belief that knowledge is certainand unchanging.The conceptions of the Hong Kong teacher

education students towards teaching and learningcomprised two dimensions: Traditional and Con-structivist Conceptions. Statistical analysis of theresponse data showed that, on the whole, thestudents in the study did not exclusively believe in

the Traditional or Constructivist Conceptionabout teaching and learning (see Table 5). Thismay raise doubt on the dichotomy classification oftraditional and constructivist conceptions, assuggested in literature. In reality, there existsintermingling of the two conceptions about teach-ing and learning in classroom practice. Theintermingling of both the Traditional and Con-structivist Conceptions of teaching and learningwithin the teacher education students in this studymight be due to the impact of their past learningexperience and an exposure to new perspectives ineducation encountered in their teacher educationprogram. The students in Hong Kong are usuallybrought up in a traditional way of teaching andlearning. They may be accustomed to this way oflearning and teaching and gradually foster aTraditional Conception. This may explain whyteacher education students readily accept the ideathat learners have to be under control beforeteaching and learning can take place. Their usualpractices of rote learning and memorization workdue to assessment requirements may have adiversified effect on their beliefs and conceptions.Some might find rote learning, drilling andpractice useful in passing examinations. Othersmight feel bored in continuing with this practiceand want other more active ways of learning. Theincreased exposure to western cultures and philo-sophies in the mass media, and the promotion ofconstructivism in learning in educational reformand in teacher education programs might trigger adifferent belief and conception towards learning,different from what they have experienced. Inturn, some teacher education students disagreedwith the Traditional Conception of teaching andlearning and were inclined towards the Westernconception of progressivism, constructing knowl-edge from one’s experiences and respect forlearners’ ideas.Pearson correlation analysis showed that three

epistemological belief dimensions: Innate/FixedAbility, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Cer-tainty Knowledge, were related to the TraditionalConception about teaching and learning (Innate/Fixed Ability, r ¼ :395; Authority/Expert Knowl-edge, r ¼ :402; Certainty Knowledge=.311,po:01). While correlations of .395 and .311 are

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statistically significant, they are not necessarilyrepresentative of strong educational significance.The size may reflect the sample size. The relation-ships appear to be moderate. The epistemologicalbelief dimensions Innate/Fixed Ability, LearningEffort/Process and Authority Knowledge werealso moderately related to the ConstructivistConception. Out of the three related epistemolo-gical belief dimensions, Learning Effort/Processwas the strongest, but negatively related toConstructivist Conception (r ¼ �:392; po:01).The other two were more weakly related to theConstructivist Conception (for Innate/Fixed Abil-ity, r ¼ :155; Authority/Expert Knowledge, r ¼

:218; po:01) (Table 6). A teacher educationstudent who is inclined toward the TraditionalConception is possibly influenced by ChineseConfucianism, where learning ability is not asimportant as learning effort. Hong Kong teachereducation students who are influenced by aConfucian-heritage Chinese culture and thoughtwould be unlikely to hold a belief in Innate Abilitybecause ability is perceived to be changeable andimprovable. Authority figures, e.g. teachers,should be respected and students depend on anauthority/expert’s knowledge, which is taken to becertain and unchanging. The Constructivist Con-ception emphasizes the arrangement or provisionof an environment or learning experience forstudents to explore and generate knowledge bythemselves. The ideas of students are consideredimportant. Hard work with repetition and drillingsimply reproduces what is known and taught bythe teacher rather than constructing knowledge bythe learners themselves. This may account for thenegative or reverse relation between the twodimensions: Learning Effort/Process and Con-structivist Conception.

7. Conclusions and implications

Hong Kong is unique in that students areexposed to the interactive influences of bothtraditional Chinese Confucian-heritage cultureand Western ideas. The epistemological develop-ment of students is mediated by culture-specificeducational environments and interactions. The

somewhat different results of this study from thatof Schommer (1990, 1994) imply that educationalenvironments and academic practices in a culture,irrespective of students’ gender and fields of study,seem to be an influential factor in the shaping/development of epistemological beliefs. This studyfound that epistemological beliefs held by HongKong teacher education students are probablyrelated to their conceptions about teaching andlearning. The results give support to otherresearchers’ assertions that teachers’ conceptionsabout teaching are beliefs driven. If teachereducation students are able to make their beliefsexplicit, it may help their learning how to teachthrough discussion and analysis of what theybelieve to work in their teaching. Related to thisare their beliefs in the nature and source ofknowledge (epistemological beliefs). Teacher edu-cators can help students become aware of theirepistemological beliefs and understand how epis-temological beliefs influence and interact withteachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning.The significance of epistemological beliefs inteaching and learning is becoming obvious, withsupport for those ideas also found in otherresearch literature. Thus, epistemological beliefsare likely to become more significant in futureanalysis of teacher education (students and pro-grams), not only in understanding meta-cognitiveactivities and processes of learning how to teachbut also in understanding strategies for theselection of prospective teachers.Implications can be drawn for teacher educators

in the design and development of teacher educa-tion programs when teacher education students’epistemological beliefs and related conceptions areconsidered. Teacher education programs shouldaim at developing within students an inquiringattitude, learn by analysis and reflection instead ofstrongly believe in what is delivered by authorityfigures. In turn, teachers should inculcate suchlearning attitudes and beliefs within the studentsthey teach in order to promote critical thinkingamongst their students. In addition, teachereducators and program designers have to taketeacher education students’ prior beliefs andconceptions into consideration in the planningand provision of teacher education experiences if

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they wish to bring about changes within teachereducation students.Close to this, comparative studies of pre-service

and in-service teacher education students may alsobe conducted to study the effect of different entrycharacteristics of students (such as maturity andteaching experiences) on epistemological beliefsand conceptions. Such studies could investigate theimpact of previous teacher education experienceacquired in the field on epistemological beliefs andconceptions and the changes.In summary, there remains much to be uncov-

ered in the domain of epistemological beliefs andconceptions about teaching and learning. Deeperunderstanding of the area through further researchshould prove invaluable to the future developmentin teacher education research and an improvementin teaching and learning.

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