Abstract

This study examined the epistemological beliefs of preservice teachers, from naïve to sophisticated, from five different departments of the faculty of education in a Turkish university. By using the adapted form of the Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire, social studies, science, Turkish, mathematics, and classroom preservice teachers were surveyed and their epistemological belief levels were determined in terms of department and gender variables. Epistemological beliefs were examined in three dimensions: beliefs that pertain to learning depending on effort, beliefs that pertain to learning depending on ability, and beliefs that pertain to there being only one unchanging truth. The analysis indicated that generally all in departments, preservice teachers have sophisticated beliefs regarding the first two dimensions of the questionnaire. For the third dimension, they seem be at medium level. The results show that for the second dimension females have more sophisticated beliefs than males. For the other two dimensions there was no significant difference between females and males. A significant difference was found only for the first dimension and only between mathematics and classroom preservice teachers.

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