A critical review of pre-post surveys designed to measure student epistemology in undergraduate science courses

TL;DR

This paper reviews various online pre-post surveys used to assess changes in undergraduate science students' beliefs about knowledge, focusing on frameworks, applications, and the MBEX survey aligned with biology education reform.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of existing epistemological surveys, highlighting the MBEX survey's design and its relevance to biology education reform efforts.

Findings

MBEX probes four key epistemic themes.

Surveys can evaluate pedagogical impacts on student beliefs.

Review informs educators about available assessment tools.

Abstract

The epistemology of science students, i.e., their beliefs about the nature of the knowledge they are learning, about what they have to do to learn it, and about how they will use that knowledge, often plays a powerful role in what they learn in their science courses. This perspective paper provides a broad overview of the theoretical frameworks, designs, and applications of online pre-post surveys that are available to assess the potential shifts in epistemic perspectives in undergraduate science courses. We pay particular attention to a recent survey for biology courses called the Maryland Biological Expectation Survey (MBEX). The MBEX was developed to probe four epistemic themes that are closely aligned with the Vision and Change initiative for reforming undergraduate biology education. This review is intended to inform STEM teachers about the availability of online epistemological surveys for evaluating the epistemic effects of their courses. These surveys can also help STEM education researchers readily evaluate how different pedagogies, classroom contexts, and other features of learning environments affect the epistemic perspectives of science students.