The Investigation of Pre Service Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs According to Some Variables

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between pre service science teachers’ scientific epistemological beliefs and academic achievements and change of the beliefs with regard to the variables such as, grade level and gender. In the research in which survey method as research approach, the sample consisted of total 258 pre service teachers. Data was collected by “Epistemological beliefs scale” with 26 items developed by Conley et al. (2004). The data collected were analyzed using two way variance analysis. The statistical analysis showed that there is no a statistically significant difference in pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs with regard to grade level and gender in the pooled data without considering sub dimensions of scale. But, in certainty of scientific knowledge sub dimension, no statistically significant difference was found according to gender, but a significant difference for grade level. Moreover, for justification of scientific knowledge sub dimension, the results showed that no pre service teachers’ epistemological beliefs differ with respect to gender, while there was statistically significant difference according to grade level. Again, it was found that the there is no statistically significant correlation between pre-service science teachers’ scientific epistemological beliefs and academic