Epistemological beliefs across domains using Biglan's classification of academic disciplines

The purpose of this study was to examine students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, epistemological beliefs, across domains that vary according to Biglan's classification of academic disciplines (hard vs. soft disciplines and pure vs. applied disciplines). One hundred and fifty-two university students completed three questionnaires that assessed their epistemological beliefs about mathematics (hard-pure), the social sciences (also pure), and business (neither hard nor pure). Correlations indicated that students' epistemological beliefs were similar for mathematics and social sciences, as well as for mathematics and business. When the amount of academic experience was taken into account, some evidence of domain specificity was found. These results support Sternberg's caveat that the dichotomy of domain generality/specificity is an assumption that should be questioned. We propose that future researchers should investigate the breadth of applicability of epistemological beliefs.