Considerations in the Design and Evaluation of a Paper-and-Pencil Measure of Epistemic Cognition

Since the work of Perry (1970), increased attention has been paid to the development of epistemological assumptions, particularly among adolescents and adults. Generally, it seems clear that assumptions, about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowing develop over time and that education plays an important role in this development (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997; King & Kitchener, 1994). However, as Hofer and Pintrich (1997) point out, multiple questions remain to be answered from the conceptual and empirical relationship between the models to their generalizability to non-Euro-Americans to the mechanisms for the acquisition and change of epistemological assumptions.