Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire

Draft

Introduction

The Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire

chai et al. 2006

Chai et al. (2006) adapted an instrument developed by Chan and Elliott’s (2004) study. The latter was from Schommer’s larger 63-item questionnaire on various epistemological dimensions. This modified EBQ version “covers four dimensions, labelled as Innate/Fixed Ability, LearningEffort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty of Knowledge” (Chai et al, 2006:291):

Dimensions	Sample items
Innate/Fixed Ability (INFIX)	● Students who begin school with average ability remain average ● Our ability to learn is fixed at birth
Learning Effort/Process (LEP)	● Understanding course materials and thinking process are more important than acquiring knowledge/facts ● Knowing how to learn is more important than the acquired facts
Authority/Expert Knowledge (AEK)	● I still believe in what the experts say even though it differs from what I know ● I have no doubt in whatever the expert says
Certainty of Knowledge (CK)	● Scientific knowledge is certain and does not change ● If scientists try hard enough, they can find the truth to almost anything

Bibliography

• Chai, C. S., Khine, M. S., & Teo, T. (2006). Epistemological beliefs on teaching and learning: a survey among pre‐service teachers in Singapore. Educational Media International, 43(4), 285–298. http://doi.org/10.1080/09523980600926242

• Chan, K. W. & Elliott, R. G. (2002) Exploratory study of Hong Kong teacher education students’ epistemolog-ical beliefs: cultural perspectives and implications on beliefs research,Contemporary Educational Psychology,27(3), 392–414.

• Chan, K. W. & Elliot, R. G. (2004) Relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning, Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 817–831

• Schommer, M. (1990) Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension, Journal of Educational Psychology, 82 (3), 498–504