Abstract:

The purposes of the study were to investigate 4th, 6th, and 8th grade elementary students’ epistemological beliefs and how these beliefs change with grade level and gender. The sample of the research included 427 elementary students. Epistemological belief questionnaire (EBQ) was used to collect data. To evaluate the effect of both year and gender on students’ epistemological beliefs, two-way MANOVA was conducted. Results showed that different from the previous research findings about the effect of grade level on students’ epistemological beliefs, in this study found those students’ beliefs became less sophisticated with respect to development and justification of knowledge as they progress through elementary education program. Moreover, female students were found to have sophisticated beliefs about justification, and source/certainty of knowledge.

Keywords: