ABSTRACT

In this chapter we explore the importance of the relationships between tertiary faculty pedagogical choices and students' personal epistemologies. We argue that university-level faculty need to be cognizant of not only the importance of the content of their instruction but also of how their pedagogical choices may be impacting and interacting with the personal epistemologies of the students in their classrooms. We review literature related to the impact of tertiary faculty pedagogical practices on students' personal epistemologies, how such beliefs may mediate other learning outcomes, and illustrate these ideas via two studies from the authors on how student personal epistemologies are impacted by faculty pedagogical choices in different academic domains. Implications are discussed—with a particular emphasis on tertiary faculty who prepare future teachers—for how this knowledge of the relationship between faculty's pedagogical choices and student epistemologies may guide tertiary institution faculty members' choices.