Beliefs About Learning: To Foster a Discipline-Based Epistemological Approach and Interdisciplinary Competencies

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly important to foster a discipline-based epistemological approach and interdisciplinary competencies. This article focuses on beliefs about learning and reviews the findings on learner beliefs from the perspective of the subject and the domains. In particular, it focuses on the hierarchical structure of beliefs assumed in epistemic beliefs studies and academic self-concept studies. First, based on the model of the Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (Muis et al., 2006), this paper classified previous studies into cross-domain and domainspecific studies. Through organizing and reviewing previous works, it was found that a new hierarchy of beliefs has recently emerged, including beliefs about daily life and specific topics in subjects, suggesting that there may be differences in the functions and variability of beliefs depending on the belief hierarchy. Second, academic self-concept research has a number of findings regarding the continuity of subjects and the causal relationships between beliefs of different hierarchies. Finally, by integrating these findings into a model of beliefs about learning, we proposed a new integrated model in which beliefs about learning formed in a specific domain spread to other domains.