Abstract
The main purpose of this research is to investigate undergraduates’ epistemological beliefs about natural science and social science. Most studies related to epistemological beliefs of science (EBS) lack of consideration from conceptual frameworks of philosophy of science. Besides, in previous studies, “science” usually means “natural science” but not refers to “social science”. Moreover, the relationships between learning motivation and EBS of Chinese students need to be explored further from the perspectives of culture and history. In order to investigate these issues, the present research contains three studies. In study 1, a scale of EBS based on concepts of philosophy of science was developed. The scale was composed of three epistemological beliefs: “rationality and objectivity”, “realism”, and “induction”. In study 2, the scale was adopted to measure 252 undergraduates’ epistemological beliefs about natural science and social science. Results of the 2 (majors of students: natural/social sciences) x 2 (areas of beliefs: natural/social science) MANOVA indicate that: (1) All three epistemological beliefs on natural science are higher than those on social science; (2) epistemological beliefs of “realism” and “induction” among students major in natural sciences are higher than those among students major in social sciences; (3) majors of students and areas of beliefs have interaction effects on beliefs of “rationality and objectivity” and “reality”. In study 3, the relationships among students’ belief of pragmatism, EBS and learning interest in natural and social science were explored. The results of structural equation model show that, for natural science, students’ EBS positively mediate the relationship between their belief of pragmatism and learning interest. However, for social science, students’ belief of pragmatism is negatively correlated with their learning interest. Furthermore, only the belief of “realism” is positively correlated with students’ learning interest in social science.