Construct validation of epistemological beliefs questionnaire for secondary school science students: lesson for practitioners

Abstract

Student’s epistemological beliefs are important to the teacher’s teaching plan and construction. Various studies have highlighted that the regulatory role of students’ epistemological beliefs underpinnings their cognitive processing strategies, regulation of learning, learning approaches, learning orientations and conceptions of learning. As teachers, they should consider different efforts to measure epistemological beliefs which proposed general domain independent measures and specific domain dependent measures. This study is intended to highlight the process of preparing and validating the Urdu version of a domain dependent Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire for secondary school science students. Later, a confirmatory factor analysis was employed to examine the hypothesized dimensions of the translated Urdu version by using the Partial least squares approach of structural equation modelling. Twelve items of the translated version of Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire with adequate validity and reliability indices were loaded across three dimensions of students’ epistemological beliefs namely Belief in Knowledge Certainty, Belief in Knowledge Justification and Reasoning, and Belief in Omniscient Authority. This confirmation will implies the teachers upon epistemological belief of the student, what to expect and dimensions to consider in their classroom teaching and learning activities.