Abstract

ALVAREZ-ESPINOZA, Alejandro  and  VERA-BACHMANN, Daniela. Exploring change of epistemological beliefs in school teachers. Rev. de Inv. Educ. [online]. 2015, vol.8, n.1, pp.171-187. ISSN 1997-4043.

Beliefs aboutknowledge and learning, -also called epistemological beliefs- have become central within educational research, mainly because they are raised in close relationship to the type of practices displayed by the teachers. Hence, as more sophisticated beliefs the teachers have, closer these are to constructivist paradigm, this is why it seems understandable and interesting to study the dynamics of this change. This research presents an exploratory study with teachers whose purpose is to describe some of the conditions under which the epistemological change -expressed through the beliefs and discuss- could be taking place. A group of 14 teachers answered a questionnaire of epistemological beliefs and performed an activity designed to generate socio-cognitive conflict. The results suggest thatmostly the degree of sophistication/naive beliefis associated to "age" and the "type of academic training" the teachers have; while the dynamics of change seem to start with a consistent process of questioning the current epistemological beliefs.

Keywords : Epistemological beliefs; change; socio-cognitive conflict..

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