Prospective teachers' general epistemic curiosity and domain-specific epistemic curiosity: the mediating role of perceived instrumentality
Yükleniyor...
Dosyalar
Tarih
2011
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Özet
Despite the fact that both epistemic curiosity and perceived instrumentality are two important concepts necessary to understand student motivation in educational settings, they have not been examined together in a single study in teacher education to date. Thus, based on the survey method with simple random sampling, this study examined the mediating role of prospective teachers' perceived instrumentality regarding pedagogical and domain knowledge categories in the relationship between their general epistemic curiosity and domain-specific epistemic curiosity regarding these knowledge categories. A total of 413 prospective teachers, majoring in mathematics teaching, primary school teaching, art teaching, special education teaching, and social studies teaching at a large university located in the North-West of the Black Sea region in Turkey, voluntarily participated in the study. The sample consisted of first-year, second-year, third-year, and final-year prospective teachers. Using correlation, regression, and structural equation modeling analyses, the data were analyzed inductively in order to obtain valid and reliable results. The results of the present study showed that the prospective teachers' interest-type general epistemic curiosity and deprivation-type general epistemic curiosity significantly and strongly predicted their interest-type epistemic curiosity regarding domain knowledge and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity regarding pedagogical knowledge categories, respectively. The results also showed that the relationship between the prospective teachers' interest-type general epistemic curiosity and interest-type epistemic curiosity regarding domain knowledge is partly, but significantly, mediated by their perceived instrumentality regarding domain knowledge; whereas the relationship between the prospective teachers' deprivation-type general epistemic curiosity and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity regarding pedagogical knowledge is partly, but significantly, mediated by their perceived instrumentality regarding pedagogical knowledge. These results suggest that the prospective teachers' epistemic curiosity should be considered together with perceived instrumentality in order to see the picture of their interests in pedagogical and domain knowledge categories more comprehensively. Implications for teacher education and directions for future studies are also discussed in the present study.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
Epistemic Curiosity, Perceived Instrumentality, Teacher Education
Kaynak
Higher Education in a State of Crisis
WoS Q Değeri
Scopus Q Değeri
N/A
