Exploring High School Students’ Topic SpecificEpistemologies And Their Impacts On Conceptual Understanding In The Topic Of Force And Motion: A Structural Equation Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the structural relations between Turkish high school students’ ‘force and motion’ specific epistemologies and their conceptual understanding of this topic. An instrument measuring connotative aspects of epistemological beliefs by adjectives have been adapted and distributed together with Force Concept Inventory. 284 students have participated. Exploratory factor analysis has revealed that the instrument has four dimensions in topic specific epistemologies: certainty, simplicity, source and justification. Structural equation modeling analysis has showed that sophistication in certainty and justification dimensions have positively related to conceptual understanding whereas sophistication in source dimension has negatively related. Additionally, simplistic beliefs have not significantly related to students’ conceptual understanding of ‘force and motion’.