Abstracts - Earli

C 1829 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.83 EötvösSymposiumEpistemological beliefs and processes of learningChair: Elmar Stahl, University of Education, Freiburg, GermanyOrganiser: Elmar Stahl, University of Education, Freiburg, GermanyDiscussant: Gale Sinatra, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USADiscussant: Barbara Hofer, Middlebury College, USAOver the last years, research on epistemological beliefs (i.e. beliefs about the nature of knowledgeand knowing) has provided growing evidence that these beliefs are related to different aspects oflearning processes. Nevertheless, due to the complexity of the construct (see e.g. the theoreticalmodel of Buehl and Alexander, 2006), it is still largely unknown how epistemological beliefsmight interact with learning processes in detail. The aim of this symposium is to present anddiscuss five studies exploring epistemological beliefs within different learning scenarios. Thesestudies aid in furthering our understanding of how epistemological beliefs might be integratedwithin the cognitive architecture. Bromme, Pieschl and Stahl focused on early stages of thelearning process and examined how epistemological beliefs affect processes of metacognitivecalibration (e.g., setting of learning goals, planning of learning strategies). Boldrin and Masonstudied learners’ epistemic metacognition, i.e. students’ processes of accessing, judging andinterpreting information, when learning by surfing the Internet. Limon investigated therelationship between individuals’ epistemological beliefs and their epistemological understandingalong the process of gaining expertise in the domain of history. Moschner, Anschütz, Wernke, andWagener explored whether elementary school children understood the meaning of standardizeditems used in common questionnaires to measure epistemological beliefs and learning strategies.Finally, Schraw, Olafson, and VanderVeldt compared the relationships among different measuresof epistemological and ontological beliefs to examine whether the different measures correlatedsignificantly in a theoretically meaningful manner. The studies will be discussed with regard totheoretical assumptions on the relation between epistemological beliefs and learning processes bySinatra and Hofer.Epistemological beliefs and the perception of task complexityRainer Bromme, University of Münster, GermanyStephanie Pieschl, University of Münster, GermanyElmar Stahl, University of Münster, GermanyIt is still widely unknown how learners’ epistemological beliefs, i.e. their beliefs about the natureof knowledge and knowing, might affect their learning processes and their use of strategies indetail. We investigate this issue within a comprehensive project. Based on the COPES-model ofself-regulated learning (Winne & Hadwin, 1998), we devised a series of experiments tappingdifferent stages of the self-regulated learning within a hypermedia environment on geneticfingerprinting. In all experiments we assume that more sophisticated epistemological beliefs areassociated with more adequate metacognitive calibration, i.e. a better match between objective taskdemands such as task complexity and the individual learning process. Results from the first mainexperiment that focused on the preparatory stages of task definition and goal setting and planningwill be presented. After a factual introduction to the topic of genetics all students (52 biology– 167 –