Epistemological beliefs and their effects on reading strategies, metacognitive strategies and performance in an e-learning environment at Sultan Qaboos University
Loading...
Date
2007
Authors
Salim Rashid Sulaiyam, Al Sakiti
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Studies have shown that lecturers contribute significantly to the choice and use of reading and meta-cognition strategies to affect student performance and achievement. The use of online e-learning removes the lecturers from the learning environment and puts the students in a situation where they have to generate or choose sets of reading and meta-cognition strategies on their own. It is hypothesized in literature that the generation or choices of these strategies are governed by the epistemological beliefs held by the students. Thus, this study investigates the types of epistemological beliefs held by students and their effects on reading strategies, meta-cognition strategies, and performance in an e-learning environment.
The sample consisted of 163 undergraduate students who were enrolled in a second-year online course at the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Oman. The course was conducted with rich online references and materials through the learner-led e-learning format but with minimal online participation by the course lecturer. The study utilized three questionnaires for collecting data, namely, the Schommer’s (1998) Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, the Reading Strategies Questionnaire, and the Meta-cognition Strategies Questionnaire. These questionnaires were administered at various stages throughout the semester and the students’ course grades were obtained at the end of the semester. Data was later analysed by gender and major using MANOVA. Principal findings revealed that 73%, or three-quarter of the sample, held naïve epistemological beliefs and only 27% held sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Furthermore, there were significant differences between male and female students by total score whereas; there were no significant differences between male and female students by the score of each dimension. Significant differences in epistemological beliefs by major were observed. Students majoring in science almost always held sophisticated beliefs compared to students majoring in the humanities. The study also found that there were significant differences in the use of reading strategies and meta-cognition strategies between students who held sophisticated beliefs and those who held naïve beliefs and that these differences later produced significant differences in performance in the online e-learning course.
These findings showed that the epistemological beliefs held by the students affected their reading strategies, meta-cognition strategies, and performance, and that students with sophisticated epistemological beliefs benefited more from the online e-learning experience because they were able to generate and use more productive strategies than students with naïve epistemological beliefs. These findings suggest that the learner-led e-learning programmes for beginners must be implemented with strong and pro-active online and off-line involvement and scaffolding by the lecturers or instructors.
Description
Ph.D
Keywords
Humanities , Epistemological Belief