Jessica Joiner Reflection Paper 1 Chapter 1, Question 3

According to Schommer (1990), the epistemological beliefs learners hold may influence the manner in which they approach a learning task and why they subsequently learn. Specifically, she examined such beliefs as Knowledge is discrete and unambiguous, Ability too learn is innate, Learning is quick or not at all, and Knowledge is certain. She found that students who believed in learning as quick, all-or-none phenomenon generated simple, overly general conclusions from what they read and were overconfident in their own learning. What do Schommers findings imply for instruction? Should teachers or instructional designers be concerned with their students epistemological beliefs? How should instruction be modified based on these beliefs?

As an instructor, it is important to establish your own effective style and methods of teaching. You want to ensure that your students are in fact learning and retaining the knowledge that you are passing along to them, however, just as there are many different ways to teach subject matter, there are many different ways in which to learn that same subject matter. This is why I do believe it is of importance for an instructor to research and know their students own epistemological beliefs to the best of their ability.In a classroom setting, it is often difficult to cover the subject matter in a way that will ensure each student has learned the material. A teacher should not assume that each student learns in the same manner, but should offer as many methods of learning as possible. Let us use a math class in this example to examine some ways in which to reach a couple of epistemological beliefs. For those students who believe learning is quick or not at all, a teacher may use in-class quizzes to ensure that learning of the material has been achieved. These quizzes may be as simple as after each days instruction, the teacher writes a problem up on the board to see which student/s can answer the quickest, or even offering mini-quizzes after each days instruction. This method is appealing to these students because of the speed in which they are able to learn and then respond to their learning, yet it could be discouraging to those who see learning and arriving at a final answer as a bit more complex. For the more complex thinking students, the idea of word problems involving the days instruction are going to be more appealing because the student will be able to think and elaborate on the answer that they conclude. The student has the opportunity to think beyond just arriving at the one answer, but more about the process that is involved. In both of these circumstances, a teacher may choose to use positive reinforcement in the form of candy, praise or grades. In addition, they may also use the same reinforcements to encourage students to learn in the opposite manner in which they feel most comfortable.

With so many epistemological beliefs, it is also of importance for an instructor to test a student on their knowledge in different ways as well. Once the material matter has been taught, it is then up to the student to continue their learning so that they may perform well on a test. Those students who believe that knowledge is certain, are more likely to use some method of rehearsal to learn the information for the test. Because the answers are certain, they are able to learn and memorize the answers for quick recall. Students of this nature typically do well with factual information on test such as dates in history. In contrary, when asked how different historical events relate to each other in an essay portion of the same test, those students who believe in knowledge is certain, may not perform as well. The students who will perform better on this portion of the test are those who understand encoding of the historical facts and how the concepts and ideas relate to one another. They have organized the facts in a way that helps them to retrieve and apply the information that they have learned, whether it is through imagery, mnemonics or self-questioning.It seems as though some of Schommers studies and conclusions of students are fairly obvious, however, it is important for instructors to know and recognize these differences in their students. Instructors should make any and all efforts to teach their subject matter in ways that will reach each of their students different epistemological beliefs. In addition, to encourage their students to learn and retain the material in their memory, teachers must develop tests that offer a variety of questions as to appeal to the various beliefs. Of course, appealing to each students epistemological beliefs takes time and effort on the instructors part but I believe it is of upmost importance if they hope to be effective in the classroom setting.