Fang Ying Yang

Teacher views about constructivist instruction and personal epistemology: a national study in Taiwan

This study investigated the views about constructivist instruction and personal epistemology of the secondary earth science teachers in Taiwan. Participants were assessed through a paper‐and‐pencil survey and a Learning environment preference questionnaire (LEP) designed to explore personal epistemology. On a five‐point Likert scale, teachers, on average, showed a neutral agreement on constructivist instruction. The content analysis suggested that teachers held alternative views about the nature of the constructivist instruction. LEP scores were found to be statistically associated with gender, education, current teaching level and years of teaching; the score distribution indicated that most teachers had not developed a constructivist‐compatible epistemology. By one‐way ANOVA, it was suggested that views about the constructivist instruction were aligned with personal epistemology.

Examining high-school students' preferences toward learning environments, personal beliefs and concept learning in web-based contexts

The purpose of the study is to explore three kinds of personal affective traits among high-school students and their effects on web-based concept learning. The affective traits include personal preferences about web-based learning environments, personal epistemological beliefs, and beliefs about web-based learning. One hundred 11th graders participated in the study. Three questionnaires were developed to assess these affective characteristics. An online test and the flow-map technique were employed to probe concept achievements that indicated the learning outcome. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, correlation and regression analyses were conducted to present trends and relations among variables. It was found that participants of the study who mostly had not developed sophisticated epistemological beliefs displayed only moderate preferences toward explorative and interactive web-based learning environments, and they seemed to be conservative about the effectiveness of the new type of learning. According to the flow-map technique, the serial form of concept achievements was the main product of concept learning in the explorative web-based environments defined in the study. Regression analyses indicated that while preferences toward inquiry-based instructional designs and outward interactions, and the simple form of personal epistemology predicted concept achievements, beliefs about effectiveness of web-based learning resulted in a negative impact on concept learning.

Personal Epistemology and Science Learning: A Review on Empirical Studies

The research about personal epistemology explores people’s beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing. Educators assert that an individual’s personal epistemology guides his or her learning. In the research of science education, much attention in the recent decade has been devoted to relevant studies across different ages and groups of learners. This chapter will present a critical review on empirical studies, focusing on the following topics: assessing personal epistemology in the context of science learning, dimensions of personal epistemology in the context of science learning, effects of personal epistemology on science learning of concepts, skills, and nature of science.

Methodology and Application of Eye-Tracking Techniques in Science Education

Eye-tracking techniques have the potential to reveal learning processes and problem solving strategies when dealing with science content. For instance, locations, durations, and numbers of gazes in predefined areas of interest together with transitions between areas indicate the degree of attention allocation to these areas. These measures combined with achievement tests, thinking aloud, or interviews can shed light on how or why learners gain or do not gain knowledge. This chapter aims to introduce issues in science education that can be explored with eye-tracking techniques and methodological concerns that should be considered when conducting research and interpreting data. The first section of this chapter outlines the methodological issues and the second section presents a survey of empirical studies conducted in Taiwan. Specifically, since material with science content usually consists of multiple representations, attentional distribution in text and illustration is one of the research foci. Furthermore, how participants’ prior knowledge and additional cues in the material guide attention allocation is also investigated. Implications for future development are discussed in the last section.

Learners’ Epistemic Beliefs and Their Relations with Science Learning—Exploring the Cultural Differences

This chapter discusses the cultural differences in learners’ epistemic beliefs (EBs) and the relations with science learning by cross comparing empirical studies from different countries in the recent 10 years. The reviewed papers were collected from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database on the research platform, Web of Knowledge, from 2004 to 2013. A total of 106 papers were included in the review. Comparisons of the research purposes, questions, and findings were made across different countries to reveal possible cultural differences. The analysis shows that among the eight issues abstracted from the 106 papers, the four which received the most attention were the status of students’ EBs (or conceptions of learning, COL), the role or effects of EBs (or COL) in science learning, the effects of instructional intervention on changes in EBs, and the relations between EBs and study approaches. Since most studies were conducted in Taiwan, Turkey, and the USA, the cultural comparisons were made mainly across these three countries. It was found that learners from Taiwan and the USA, which were identified as having lower context cultures, seemed to have developed more sophisticated beliefs about knowledge, but they tended to believe more in the innate ability of learning. On the contrary, learners from Turkey as well as China, which were recognized as having high-context cultures, tended to believe more in authority knowledge while relying more on the value of effort. While not much difference in the relations between learners’ EBs and science learning could be found across Taiwan, Turkey, and the USA, it was much easier for the EBs of learners with low-context cultures to be affected by instructional interventions.