Research Information System
KAFKAS EĞİTİM ARAŞTIRMALARI DERGİSİ, vol.10, no.3, pp.432-453, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Students’ epistemological beliefs are important in science education as developed epistemological
beliefs facilitate learning, reasoning skills, academic performance, and engagement in debates. This
study specifically addresses two issues about personal epistemology: grade level and gender. As a
theoretical framework, the developmental view was adopted in this study and the Epistemological
Belief Instrument developed by Kuhn et al. (2000) was used to collect data. Therefore, personal
epistemology was defined in three hierarchical categories: absolutism, multiplism, and evaluativism.
Two domains of personal epistemology which are physical truth and social truth were studied in this
study. A total of 430 students ranging from primary school to the university level participated in the
study. The relationships between grade level, gender, and personal epistemology were analyzed by use
of the chi-square test of independence. The findings showed a significant relationship between grade
level and judgment of social truth with a small effect size. The same relation was also observed
between gender and judgment of social truth. On the other hand, no significant relationship was
observed between gender and the judgment of physical truth, and between grade level and the
judgment of physical truth. We think that the findings contribute to understanding the nature of
personal epistemology regarding developmental level and gender.