Forming the Epistemological Views of Students and Teachers towards Science: A Case Study

Abstract

Epistemology is defined as an individual's view of the nature of knowledge and learning. This study aims to determine the form of students' and teachers' epistemological views of science, significant differences in epistemological views at different levels, and significant differences in the form of epistemological views in female and male students. The research instrument included five dimensions of epistemological views on science (subscales). The type of research is quantitative. This research instrument uses a survey by looking at the percentage of the questionnaire results. Participants from West Java as many as 120 junior high school students and 12 science teachers responded to the instrument. Then, the sample was randomly selected as a representative to be interviewed. The results showed that the epistemological views of students and teachers towards science tend to lead to a constructivist view. The constructivist view is defined as generative learning, which is the act of creating meaning from what is learned. In the form of epistemological views based on grade level, namely, grades 8 and 9 on science have different percentages and grade 9 tends to have a higher percentage than grade 9.