Primary School Teacher Trainees’ Opinions on Epistemological Beliefs and Metacognition

Abstract

Epistemological beliefs defined as individuals’ subjective beliefs about what knowledge is and how knowing and learning occurs. Metacognition explained as students’ supervisions of the activities performed on their learning can be considered as basic factors of learning to learn. In this study, it’s critically aimed to determining opinions of primary school teacher trainees’ metacognition and epistemological beliefs. In collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data, qualitative research methodology were used. Participants were determined with the maximum variation (heterogeneity) sampling technique. Data used in this study were collected from twenty
volunteer primary school teacher trainees with semi-structured interview forms developed by the researchers. The study revealed that participants who explained learning as effort rather than ability and had awareness about metacognition.