Effects of epistemological beliefs and reciprocal teaching and social learning on minority secondary students' attitudes toward science
Abstract
This study examined the relationship of 40 11th-grade minority high school students' epistemological beliefs and 2 group guidance approaches, reciprocal teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) and social learning (Krumboltz, 1979), to student attitudes toward science. The findings of this investigation included: Hypothesis 1 stated: There is no significant difference between the mean scores on the Image of Science and Scientists Scale between students with rated high and low epistemological beliefs, as defined by 10 scales from the revised Epistemological Belief Questionnaire. The median was computed for the participants' responses from the Epistemological Belief Questionnaire, Revised (Qian, 1993; Schommer, 1990; Schommer & Dunnell, 1992) as defined by the instrument's 10 scales. Those participants who scored above the median (2.58) were high and subjects scoring below the median (2.58) were low. A t test revealed that the mean for the high epistemological belief group (M = 82.05) was significantly higher than the low epistemological belief group mean (M = 68.55; t = 3.18, df = 38, p = .003). Since a statistical difference did exist between the high and low epistemological belief groups on the Image of Science and Scientists Scale, Hypothesis 1 may be rejected. Hypothesis 2 stated: There is no significant difference between mean scores of the Image of Science and Scientists Scale between those students who received reciprocal teaching and those students who received social learning approach to affect attitudes toward science and was rejected. A significant difference did exist between the participants who received social learning and those participants who received reciprocal teaching (t = 4.31, df = 38, p = .001). Hypothesis 3 said: There are no significant interactions between epistemological beliefs (high and low) and the mode of instruction (reciprocal teaching and social learning group guidance) to affect attitudes toward science and may be rejected. Factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test Hypothesis 3. Findings indicated that the interaction of epistemological beliefs (high and low) with group (reciprocal teaching and social learning) was not significant (F(1, 36) = .37, p = .54). Therefore, these results show that Hypothesis 3 may be supported.
Subject Area
Curriculum development|Cognitive psychology|Educational psychology|Multicultural Education
Recommended Citation
Emekli-Galvin, Mahi Suzanne, "Effects of epistemological beliefs and reciprocal teaching and social learning on minority secondary students' attitudes toward science" (2002). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3056138.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3056138
