Mahin Mahdavieh; soheila hashemi; Habibollah Naderi; Ali Asghar Firozjayan
Abstract
Introduction The epistemological beliefs research is about how people know the phenomena of the universe, what theories and beliefs they have about to know, and how epistemological assumptions affect to cognitive processes of thinking and reasoning. In recent years, there has been growing interest ...
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Introduction The epistemological beliefs research is about how people know the phenomena of the universe, what theories and beliefs they have about to know, and how epistemological assumptions affect to cognitive processes of thinking and reasoning. In recent years, there has been growing interest in researching children's epistemological beliefs. As Feucht(2017) in his study provided evidence that the level of complexity cannot necessarily be associated with more advanced developmental stages of personal epistemology and the complexity of elementary school children's epistemic beliefs was underestimate in the field of personal epistemology; The purpose of this research is to investigate the epistemological beliefs of children. For this purpose, the questions were: 1) What beliefs do elementary students have in third grade, and 2) which conceptual model could be designed based on students' beliefs. Method The primary method used in this research is Grounded theory. By using a purposeful sampling method, 20 girl students of the third grade in elementary school with a mean age of 9 years old were select. Various techniques, including "draw, write, tell," an in-depth and semi-structured interview with students, were conducted. Then the data about their beliefs and experiences in the process of acquiring these beliefs were collected and analyzed. Results By coding, data categorized, and seven categories emerged. These categories are Individual Mental Scheme, Epistemic Susceptibility, Epistemic Climate, Doubt, Volition, Justification of knowledge, and Multi-dimensional beliefs. The results showed that participants in this research hold multi-dimensional beliefs, which include five dimensions named "Ownership: Authority or Reason, Innateness: Innate or Acquired, Exactness: Certain or Tentative, Simplicity: Simple or Complex, Pace: Quick or Gradual. Dimensions of Exactness, Simplicity, and Ownership have illustrated on nature of knowledge and dimensions of Innateness and Pace have indicated on nature of knowing. All these dimensions can appear in a continuum from naive to sophisticated. Discussion Based on the conceptual model developed in this research, the categories of individual mental schema, epistemic susceptibility and epistemic climate as "Fundamental Components" and categories of doubt, volition, and justification of knowledge in the form of "change mechanism" had contribution in the process of creating and developing epistemological beliefs of students in a way that can lead to formation the multi-dimensional epistemological beliefs. The results of this study will help educators to find new findings of student's beliefs about knowledge and knowing as well as its development process. They can lead to better educational planning by understanding the epistemological beliefs of students.
Soheila Hashemi; Ebrahim Salehi Omran; Roghieh Valipoor Khajeh Ghiyasi
Abstract
This paper attempts to investigate university students' citizenship knowledge, attitude and skill. It also intends to study the quality of citizenship education in higher education. This study was conducted through quantitative (descriptive) and qualitative method. The required data were gathered from ...
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This paper attempts to investigate university students' citizenship knowledge, attitude and skill. It also intends to study the quality of citizenship education in higher education. This study was conducted through quantitative (descriptive) and qualitative method. The required data were gathered from both students through a questionnaire and professors through semi-structured interviews. 359 students were selected by using Cochran formula and stratified sampling based on the students, entrance year, sex, and faculty. The sample of professors consisted of 14 persons. They were selected through chain sampling. The Questionnaire data were analyzed by using descriptive and referential statistics, and inductive analysis was used to analyze the interviews data. Findings show that the mean of students' citizenship knowledge is lower than average and the mean of citizenship attitude and skill is higher than average. Also the result of T-test for comparing the mean of citizenship knowledge, attitude and skill in students who entered university in 1385 with that of students entering in 1382 indicated that except for the subareas of pluralism and patriotism there was no significant difference among the two groups of students in other components. On the other hand, the professors' ideas illustrate that the higher education has not been successful enough in promoting citizenship domains. It seems that higher education has mostly been inclined toward theoretical knowledge and memorization and fostering citizenship skills has not been its pivotal concern. Except of law and political subjects (due to their special nature), higher education does not put emphasis on citizenship knowledge.
