Epistemic Beliefs and Academic Performance Abstracts Aditomo 2016

Journal of Further and Higher Education

"

"

#

rR

ee

rP
Fo
!

" &&

$
$' '

# %
"

&$

" #

&

#

w

ie

ev
ly

On
URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjfh

$

Page 1 of 34

Epistemic Beliefs and Academic Performance
Across Soft and Hard Disciplines in the First
Year of College

Abstract. Mature epistemic beliefs underlie higher-order thinking and learning

Fo

outcomes. Previous studies have established that epistemic beliefs predict task-

rP

specific learning outcomes. However, there is mixed evidence regarding the
relationships between such beliefs and course-level academic performance. This study

ee

investigated whether disciplinary type (“soft” vs. “hard”) could account for the mixed
findings. A prospective survey was conducted among 1366 university students

rR

enrolled in “soft” (design, psychology, and law) and “hard” disciplines (engineering,

ev

biotechnology, and pharmacy). Beliefs about the uncertainty of knowledge, the
subjectivity of knowledge, and authority justification were measured before the start

iew

of semester. Findings indicated that while subjectivity belief was not associated with
GPA in the soft disciplines, it negatively predicted GPA in the hard disciplines.
Uncertainty belief, but not authority belief, was associated with GPA in both

On

disciplines. Hence, the relations between some epistemic beliefs and academic
performance may depend on the nature of the discipline.

ly

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53

54
55
56
57
58
59
60

Journal of Further and Higher Education

Keywords: personal epistemology, epistemic belief, academic performance,
disciplinary difference, higher education

Page 1 of 31
URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjfh