Abstracts - Earli

satisfaction. Two cohorts of prospective teachers enrolled in teacher preservice programmecompleted two sets of questionnaires – one set during their teacher training (N = 123) and thesecond set was completed once they had started full time teaching (N = 58). A repeated measuresMANOVA found a significant reduction in instructional strategy efficacy and perceived value ofthe teacher training from T1 to T2. Hierarchical linear regression analyses found that at T1 thepersonality trait intellect and extraversion were significantly predictive of the different types ofteacher efficacy while instructional efficacy was significantly predictive of perceived value ofteacher training. Hierarchical linear regression analyses at T2 found that a model which includedall three teacher efficacy scales, intellect, and job satisfaction was significantly predictive ofperceived value of teacher training (T2). At T2 only the personality trait intellect continued topredict classroom management efficacy and job satisfaction was found to be significantlypredicted by collective teacher efficacy. Implications of these results are discussed for preserviceteacher training, evaluation, and teacher support during their first year of full time teaching.M 1231 August 2007 14:35 - 15:55Room: -1.63Paper SessionHigher educationChair:János Steklács, Teacher-Training College Kecskemét, HungaryPersonal epistemology of psychology, theology and pharmacy students: epistemological profilesMinna Kaartinen-Koutaniemi, University of Helsinki, FinlandThe aims of this study are to examine university students’ epistemological profiles and to comparethe consistency of the epistemological profiles among students representing three academicdisciplines. The present study is part of the project with the idea to explore university students’academic thinking and personal epistemology. The aim of the research project is to understand andpromote students’ research and academic skills as a main goal of academic studies in the researchintensiveUniversity of Helsinki. In this paper, the individual profiles of students’ personalepistemology have been investigated in more detail consisting of the comparison among studentsfrom three disciplines, psychology, theology and pharmacy. The student profiles have rarely beenexamined in the research on personal epistemology. In this study the student interview data (N =87) has been analysed with qualitative content analysis in purpose to reveal students’ conceptionsof thinking and reasoning, that is, the beliefs and acquisitions of knowledge. The individualanswers were examined and rated at the scale from nañve to relativistic thinking. As a result, thestudents represent qualitatively different profiles according to the categorisation of their answers.The main themes of the interview data were the criteria that students used to evaluate the qualityand reliability of knowledge. Furthermore, the students described their experiences ofrequirements for thinking set by their academic context. According to the student answers, thethree epistemological profiles emerged from the data. The profiles were entitled as a) nañveprofiles; b) relativistic profiles consisting of the subgroups entitled "limited" and "sophisticated",and c) incoherent profiles. The categorisation of epistemological profiles was compared withvariables such as age, major subject and study phase. The results showed that the epistemologicalprofiles varied among students from different age groups, disciplines and study phases.– 707 –