Influence of resource and content on epistemic beliefs about general pedagogical knowledge. Research data of an experimental study.

Research Questions/Hypotheses:

• Humanities-rational research subjects are judged more relativistically.
• Pedagogical knowledge coming from expert or scientific source is judged less relativistically than lay knowledge.
• Pedagogical knowledge presented embedded in school context is judged more relativistically.

Research Design:

Experimental Design, Mixed Design; repeated measurements

Measurement Instruments/Apparatus:

To examine the source and context sensitivity of epistemological beliefs, “six texts with identical content on topics related to the companion course in education were varied in source and context”(Merk et al., 2016). The texts were created using a multi-step process described in Merk et al (2016). The variation of the source was three-stage (“experience report” vs “expert advice” vs “scientific study”), and the variation of the context was two-stage (“without school context” vs “with school context”). This resulted in a 2×3 design with six-level within factor (Merk et al., 2016).
In existing courses (group size approximately 30), student teachers were introduced to the survey by a trained test administrator for approximately 7 min using a test administration manual. They were then randomly assigned a test booklet that had one of the 2×3 experimental conditions. This was followed by the processing of the test booklets, which took approximately 60 min.
Items used to elicit epistemological beliefs included the Connotative Aspects of Epistemological Beliefs (CAEB), Theory Specific Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (TSEBQ), and the Questionnaire to Assess the Developmental Level of Epistemological Beliefs (FREE).

Data Collection Method:

Data collection in the presence of an experimenter

• Group Administration
• Paper and Pencil

Population:

Graduate students in teacher education

Survey Time Period:

Sample:

Convenience Sample

Gender Distribution:

66,9 % female subjects (n=216)
32,5 % male subjects (n=105)
0,6 % missing value (n=2)

Age Distribution: 18 – 62 years

Spatial Coverage (Country/Region/City): Germany/Baden-Württemberg/Tübingen

Subject Recruitment:

Announcement by lecturers.

Sample Size:

323 individuals

Return/Drop Out: