Personal Epistemology Research: Implications for Learning and Teaching

The ideas that individuals hold about knowledge and knowing have been the target of research programs with disparate names, such as epistemological beliefs, reflective judgment, ways of knowing, and epistemological reflection, all of which appear to be a part of a larger body of work on "person...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEducational psychology review Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 353 - 383
Main Author Hofer, Barbara K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers 01.12.2001
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Belief
Cognition
Cognitive Development
Cognitive models
Constructivist epistemology
Educational Psychology
Epistemology
Evolutionary epistemology
Learning
Modeling
Resistance (Psychology)
Scientific belief
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Summary:The ideas that individuals hold about knowledge and knowing have been the target of research programs with disparate names, such as epistemological beliefs, reflective judgment, ways of knowing, and epistemological reflection, all of which appear to be a part of a larger body of work on "personal epistemology." Epistemological perspectives are salient in numerous academic experiences, have been shown to be related to learning in various ways, influence reasoning and judgment throughout our lives, and have implications for teaching. Yet this work has remained outside the mainstream of educational psychology and cognitive development. This paper addresses three main questions: (1) What is personal epistemology research and how is it conceptualized? (2) How are individuals' conceptions of epistemology related to learning and instruction? (3) Given what we know about personal epistemology, what might educators do? Suggestions are also provided for future research and theoretical development.
ISSN:1040-726X
1573-336X
DOI:10.1023/A:1011965830686