ABSTRACT
Epistemology refers to assumptions about the nature, certainty, and limits of knowledge. The students' collective academic experiences yielded the categories such as: professor attitude, professor-student interaction, teaching strategies, class structure, evaluation techniques and systems, and knowledge discrepancies. Knowledge discrepancies occurred when students encountered inconsistent explanations of the same phenomenon. In discussing teaching strategies, both men and women frequently mentioned how much they valued interesting activities in the classroom. Learning across all epistemological perspectives was more effective when professors expressed regard for students as learners and knowers. The longitudinal study describes students' epistemological perspectives and gender-related patterns within them. The annual, open-ended interviews allowed students to discuss few areas defined in models as relevant to epistemological development: the role of the learner, peers, and instructor in learning; evaluation of learning; educational decision making; and the nature of knowledge.
