Epistemologiacal Beliefs

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

"I bow to my teacher who has opened my eyes blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with enlightening rays of knowledge."

We all know the importance of teachers in our life. Teachers were compared with God. Teaching profession has been given great importance. Teaching has been considered as a sacred work.

'A good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to lighten the way for others.'

Education in the largest sense is any other experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is other process by which a society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

The role of schools, colleges and teachers has been vital in all-round personality development of students. In fact, teacher is a role model influencing every facet of students' growth and developing their innate potentials, in addition to being a motivator, a guide and a friend.

Besides, the teacher is also responsible to enable and empower the learner to emerge as a competent youth, ready to take on the challenges of the rapidly changing world. Hence, it is imperative that the teacher continuously upgrades his/her knowledge and methodology in order to enhance the quality of teaching. If the quality of teaching is good and the commitment of teacher is high, the standard of education is bound to rise.

Teachers are prepared at the college of education by teacher educators. Teacher educators through their sharing of experienced and wisdom, may receive the chance for reflection of the reciprocal influences.

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

-Helen Keller

As it is truly said, one of the most important aspects of teacher's personality is his / her faith or beliefs.

All the beliefs hold by the teachers are the beliefs about nature of knowledge and learning, collectively known as 'Epistemological beliefs' which may influence teacher's choice and discussion in the classroom. It is likely that the methods teacher uses, how the teacher manages the class, what to focus in learning and so on are likely to be influenced by the beliefs the teachers hold about knowledge and acquisition. It is likely to be helpful to teacher educator in constructing teacher education program and in interacting with student if they have knowledge of their student's epistemological beliefs.

Epistemological Beliefs

As with many other research topics, different names and different definitions have been used for the study of what we, in this article, are calling epistemological beliefs. Those names include epistemological theories, ways of knowing, epistemic reflection, epistemological resources, epistemic cognition, and epistemological thinking, to mention a few. However, they all refer to the cognitions (i.e., understandings) an individual (for our purposes in this discussion, a beginning teacher) has about knowledge and knowing. The different theories on epistemological beliefs differ to the extent to which they also include a student's and a teacher's cognitions about learning, intelligence, instruction, etc.

The research into epistemological beliefs was initiated by Perry in the 1970s and has since been approached in three different ways. A first group of researchers saw personal epistemology as a one-dimensional, generic characteristic with a step-by-step developmental progression over time, ranging from a dualistic view of knowledge (i.e., knowledge is right or wrong and absolutely observable) to a relativistic view of knowledge (i.e., knowledge is actively constructed by the knower using context-dependent evidence). Within this framework, semi structured interviews have most frequently been used to assess the research participant's personal epistemology. The developmental pattern is well described and chronological. Changes are said to be induced by confrontations with problems that need more sophisticated cognitive processing to solve.

This one-dimensional construct was challenged by Schommer. She introduced a second framework, proposing the existence of different dimensions-epistemological beliefs-that develop independently of one another. In this approach, she used a questionnaire to assess the different beliefs. The easy use and applicability of this questionnaire has guided many other researchers along the same pathway. Several of these researchers have formulated the same four epistemological beliefs:

1. The certainty of knowledge (varying from the belief that knowledge is certain, to the belief that knowledge is tentative and evolving),

2. The simplicity of knowledge (from knowledge is simple to knowledge is an accumulation of interrelated facts),

3. The source of knowledge (from knowledge resides outside of oneself and is transmitted passively to knowledge is actively constructed by the knower), and

4. The justification of knowing (based either on observation or on authority, or, instead, as a result of inquiry and active processing by the knower).

Initially, epistemological beliefs were seen as generic-that is, not dependent on any specific domain of knowledge. However, several researchers have demonstrated domain specificity. Questionnaires have permitted researchers to study the relationship between epistemological beliefs and age or education, choice of majors, and learning outcomes such as strategy use, comprehension, text processing, and motivation. (For a detailed overview, see Buehl, MM. At the Crossroads of Epistemology and Motivation: Modeling the Relations between Students' Domain-Specific Epistemological Beliefs, Achievement Motivation, and Task Performance [unpublished dissertation]. University of Maryland; 2003).

Within this second framework, Hofer has highlighted the metacognitive aspect of epistemological beliefs:

For example, as you build your own knowledge about a topic that is previously unfamiliar, how will you evaluate and assess the veracity of what you read and hear? Whose authority will you accept-and why? What evidence will you decide is acceptable justification for particular recommended choices of action? How certain are you that what you read is true, that it is supportable, that it can be believed? How will you reconcile

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