Abstract:

This study aimed to determine the epistemological beliefs of 1004 teacher candidates studying at the Education Faculty, Secondary Grade Science and Mathematics Education departments, and the teacher candidates attending the Primary Grade Mathematics and Science Education departments and to examine whether these epistemological beliefs differ on the basis of gender, learning style, academic average, class level and department.  The study made use of the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory and the Kolb Learning Styles Questionnaire.  According to the analysis results, there were differences seen in dependent variables based on gender.  Also, there was a negative relationship found between the learning styles and epistemological beliefs.  The analysis results suggest that the teacher candidates mostly possess a strong belief that learning is dependent on effort and that they possess a weak belief that there is only one truth that epistemological beliefs of the candidates show meaningful differences on the basis of each dimension and class levels and that females possess more developed beliefs than males.  

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