Middle School Students’ Epistemological Beliefs: Development of A Scale Based on Vignettes and Scenarios

Abstract

This study aims to develop a scale based on vignettes and scenarios to determine the epistemological beliefs of middle school students. The study group of this cross-sectional study is investigated by random sampling and consists of 257 middle school students studying in Yunusemre and Şehzadeler districts of Manisa province in western Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year. For construct validity, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed respectively. The research findings revealed that the scale, which accounts for 56% of the total variance, consisted of 25 items and five dimensions. In line with reliability calculations, the alpha internal consistency coefficients for innate ability, quick learning, omniscient authority, simple knowledge, and certain knowledge dimensions were respectively calculated as .83, .77, .77, .71, and .64. The research results showed that scenarios based on vignettes support the multi-dimensional structure of epistemological beliefs. Several suggestions were also made regarding the use of vignette-based scenarios as a novel approach in identifying the epistemological beliefs of middle school students.