Lori Olafson

Teachers' Epistemological World Views and Educational Practices

This article examines the implications of teachers’ beliefs about knowledge. We compare three epistemological world views we refer to as realist, contextualist, and relativist. An epistemological world view is a set of beliefs about knowledge and knowledge acquisition that influences the way teachers think and make important instructional decisions. We assume that different epistemological world views lead to different choices about curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. We describe ongoing research that examines the beliefs held by teachers, instructional practices, and the consistency between beliefs and classroom practices. We summarize findings from our research and discuss their implications for teacher training. We also consider environmental factors such as school culture and mandated standards that affect teachers’ beliefs. We relate our findings to implications for teacher training. We also identify directions for future research.

Exploring the Judgment–Action Gap: College Students and Academic Dishonesty

This study examined differences between university students who were caught and sanctioned for cheating, students admitting to cheating but who were not caught, and students reporting that they had never cheated. Our findings showed that noncheaters are older, have better grade point averages, and have more sophisticated moral and epistemological reasoning skills. Qualitative analyses revealed that denial of responsibility and injury were the most common neutralization techniques and differed between the sanctioned and self-reported cheaters. We discuss the need to examine the extent to which reasoning skills have a causal impact on cheating behaviors.

Metacognitive Knowledge and Field-based Science Learning in an Outdoor Environmental Education Program

We examined the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and learning in a field-based environmental education program. Students (N = 134) in 4th and 5th grades completed the 12-item Jr. MAI (Sperling et al. Contemp Educ Psychol 27:51–79, 2002) prior to a half-day science field trip on a floating classroom at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The Jr. MAI assessed students’ knowledge and regulation of cognition. Students also completed pre- and posttest attitude and knowledge scales. Significant gains occurred for attitudes and knowledge at each grade. Metacognitive knowledge was correlated with attitudes and posttest knowledge scores; whereas regulation of cognition scores was uncorrelated with these measures at the 4th grade. These findings supported two conclusions. One is that metacognitive knowledge is correlated with students’ pre- and posttest attitudes and learning in a field-based science program. The second is that the knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition were correlated significantly. These findings are discussed with respect to using the Jr. MAI as a predictor of field-based learning and the role of metacognitive knowledge in facilitating student science learning. The notion of metacognition applied in this study is reflected in the Jr. MAI instrument that assesses students’ knowledge and regulation of cognition. Knowledge of cognition refers to what we know about our cognition and usually includes three subcomponents: declarative knowledge (i.e., knowledge about oneself as a learner and what factors influence one’s performance), procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge. Regulation of cognition includes at least three components, planning, monitoring, and evaluation.

Personal Epistemology in the Classroom: Beyond epistemology: assessing teachers' epistemological and ontological worldviews

An important issue in epistemological research concerns the measurement of epistemological beliefs and other related methodological issues (Hofer, 2002; Pintrich, 2002). In our work, we have been interested in measuring the epistemological beliefs of practicing teachers and describing the relationship between epistemological beliefs and instructional practices. Previously, we documented lack of alignment between teachers’ epistemological world views and their teaching practices (Schraw and Olafson, 2002; Olafson and Schraw, 2002). In these studies we found, for example, that the majority of our forty-two participants endorsed student-centered instructional practices and believed that learners must construct shared understandings in supportive contexts in which teachers serve as facilitators. Yet these teachers also reported using teacher-centered instructional practices such as whole-group completion of common work sheets. These findings of poor alignment between teachers’ beliefs and practices are consistent with previous studies (Levitt, 2001; Marra, 2005; White, 2000). Two issues are of concern regarding research examining alignment between teachers’ beliefs and practices. The first issue is a conceptual shortcoming due to focusing on epistemology without regard to ontology. Unlike epistemological beliefs, few studies have examined teachers’ ontological beliefs, nor have any studies investigated the joint contribution of epistemological and ontological beliefs. It is our belief that teachers’ epistemological (i.e., beliefs about the nature and acquisition of knowledge) beliefs must be examined in conjunction with their ontological beliefs (i.e., beliefs about the nature of reality and being). By doing so, we hope to explore more fully issues of alignment related to teachers’ beliefs and practices.

Academic Dishonesty: Behaviors, Sanctions, and Retention of Adjudicated College Students

Academic dishonesty, also known as academic misconduct, includes a variety of actions such as plagiarism, cheating on tests using text messaging or concealed notes, exchanging work with other students, buying essays from students or on the Internet, and having other students write examinations (Diekhoff, LaBeff, Shinohara, & Yasukawa, 1999; Ellery, 2008; Underwood & Szabo, 2003). Although academic dishonesty is believed to be widespread among college students, very few are caught and fewer still are sanctioned. This study examined students who were accused of academic misconduct at a large institution. We used an unobtrusive behavioral indicator of misconduct, collecting and analyzing 421 Description of Alleged Academic Misconduct forms over two academic years (2007–2009). Plagiarism accounted for 49% of the violations, while receiving external assistance accounted for (35%). Approximately 91.5% of reported cases occurred among undergraduate level classes (freshman=43.5%, sophomore=15%, junior=9%, senior=24%). Approximately 98% of individuals were found responsible with 80% or more receiving three or more sanctions.

Identities in the Making: Realized In-Between Self and Other

A middle school is a complex setting in which to develop a sense of self. The following accounts of three young women reveal ways that identity is confronted, offering insights for all learners. The intent is to show how prospective and practicing teachers can gain greater access to fostering identities in the making. The language of Bakhtin gives expression to the necessary teaching and learning conditions for students to look at the sense and selves being made on a continual basis. We conclude that valuing and validating identities in the making require that learning spaces be created, sustained, and nurtured as living, evolving encounters for negotiating ideas, making connections, and seeing possibilities, gaining insights into self and other. Educators must appreciate the student risking of self entailed in such learning encounters. Just as greater self-understanding should be at the core of all learning, and must be known in order to foster such understandings in others, so the tradition of self-study research needs to be at the core of teacher education programs.

A Self-Study of Professional Development through Program Revision

This paper describes a university–school collaboration that resulted in the creation and implementation of a field-based teacher education program. Key features of this program included immersion in the field, integrated curriculum, supported reflection, and technology integration. After describing the development and implementation of the program, we discuss the results stemming from systematic reflection on the significance of the experience.

Expecting, Accepting, and Respecting Difference in Middle School

Adolescence is a time when key questions of identity assume central importance in the lives of children (Brumberg, 1997). It is often a particularly traumatic time for girls as they negotiate through the quagmire of adolescent experience (Harper, 1997). During the time we spent researching and teaching in middle schools, we found that the voices of adolescent girls echoed this fragile and vulnerable sense of self. We were engaged in separate interpretive research studies in middle schools that allowed the