Relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning

Four epistemological belief and two teaching and learning conception dimensions were identified from a survey study of a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students. The epistemological belief dimensions were labeled Innate/Fixed Ability, Learning Effort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge. The results on epistemological beliefs were somewhat different from Schommer's findings with North American college students and reflected the influence of cultural contexts. The two teaching and learning conceptions were labelled Traditional and Constructivist Conceptions. Pearson correlation analysis showed significant relations between Innate/Fixed Ability, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge with Traditional Conception and Learning Effort/Process with Constructivist Conception. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed the possible causal effect of epistemological beliefs on conceptions about teaching and learning. All these analyses tended to support the suggested views in literature that teachers' conceptions about teaching and learning are beliefs driven. Implications were drawn for future research in teacher education with respect to the relation of epistemological beliefs and teaching/learning conceptions in different cultures. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.