Epistemological beliefs in learning to teach: Resolving conceptual and empirical

Abstract

This paper explores the importance of student teachers' epistemological beliefs in the process of learning to teach. It examines the problematic nature of the conceptual basis of the field and then reports on a series of studies undertaken in Hong Kong to develop a set of scales to map student teachers' epistemological beliefs. By exploring the assumptions and methods used by Schommer to measure such beliefs it is concluded that the basis of her empirical work may be questionable. Adopting her 63 questionnaire and the critique of Hofer and Pintrich the paper reports on studies attempting to map the epistemological beliefs of Hong Kong teacher education students. Conclusions about the assumptions underpinning the study of epistemological beliefs and cross cultural analysis of such beliefs are considered. Additionally, implications of the work for teacher education are considered.