Epistemological development in higher education: a study at University of Madeira

Beja, Maria João; Franco, Glória; Sousa, Fábia; Portugal, Alda

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/7409

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Abstract(s)

The present study fits into the emerging adult cognitive development domain, more precisely in the analysis of higher education student’s epistemological beliefs development. The scientific literature of the area considers that student’s epistemological beliefs evolve, throughout the academic formation, of more sim plistic/absolutist forms to more complex/relativistic forms (Baxter-Magolda, 2004; Perry, 1999). However, most of the students do not reveal higher levels of epistemological complexity (Figueiredo, Pinheiro, & Huet, 2015). In this paper we present and compare the results of two studies carried out at the University of Madeira, in 2010 and 2016, respectively, which main goal was to ana lyse the epistemological development of students of higher education and the influence of social and academic variables in the epistemological development. The research adopted a quantitative methodology and the sample was composed of students from the University of Madeira (295 in study 1 and 232 in study 2), of the 1st and 2nd cycle, distributed by different academic areas. The data were evaluated through the portuguese version of the Parker Cognitive Development Inventory (Ferreira, & Bastos, 1995). The analysis of the results revealed, in both studies, a predominance of absolut ist thinking in the students of the University of Madeira, Contrary to the litera ture and the studies carried out in this field, there has not been a developmental progression in terms of an absolutist for a more relativistic thought, but rather an increase of absolutism as one advances in the academic formation, being that the students of the 2nd cycle have proved to be more absolutist than students in the 1st cycle. Concomitantly, in both studies, the epistemological development of students varies according to social and academic variables.