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Knowledge and Epistemological Beliefs: An Intimate but Complicate Relationship

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Knowing, Knowledge and Beliefs

Abstract

It is widely assumed that more sophisticated epistemological beliefs improve learners’ understanding and knowledge. Nevertheless, recent findings challenge the idea of a simple relationship between the quality of epistemological beliefs and knowledge. For example, there is some evidence that the amount of knowledge with regard to different topics and the quality of epistemological beliefs is correlated negatively. Furthermore, gaining factual knowledge sometimes results in less sophisticated epistemological beliefs. These findings point to the question what makes up sophisticatedness and how it is related to knowledge about a certain discipline? In other words, which kinds of knowledge are necessary for the development of a sophisticated standpoint?

We claim that sophisticated epistemological judgments are generated with regard to a specific discipline or a specific topic, and that these judgments depend on individuals' personal knowledge about the production, justification and use of knowledge in a certain society but also on their ontological assumptions about a specific discipline and their topic-related knowledge. We will discuss consequences of this claim for conceptualizing and measuring epistemological beliefs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Westfaelische Wilhelms University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Rainer Bromme

  2. Freiburg University of Education, Freiburg, Germany

    Dorothe Kienhues & Elmar Stahl

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  1. Rainer Bromme
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  2. Dorothe Kienhues
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  3. Elmar Stahl
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

    Myint Swe Khine

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Bromme, R., Kienhues, D., Stahl, E. (2008). Knowledge and Epistemological Beliefs: An Intimate but Complicate Relationship. In: Khine, M.S. (eds) Knowing, Knowledge and Beliefs. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6596-5_20

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