Epistemological Belief Congruency in Mathematics between Vocational Technology Students and Their Instructors

Abstract

Three questions were addressed in this study. Is there evidence of epistemological beliefs congruency between students and their instructor? Do students’ epistemological beliefs, students’ epistemological congruence, or both predict mathematical anxiety? Do students’ epistemological beliefs, students’ epistemological congruence, or both predict mathematical performance? Over 200 vocational technology students and their instructors completed measures of beliefs about mathematical problems solving. The students also completed a measure of mathematical anxiety. Regressions indicated students’ epistemological beliefs about time and understanding predicted mathematical anxiety, whereas both student mathematical epistemological beliefs about time and their congruency scores predicted mathematical performance. The implications of these is that mathematical instructors may need to explicitly teach their mathematical epistemology and provide students with classroom experiences to deepen their appreciation of these epistemological underpinnings.