Modeling the Relations Among Students' Epistemological Beliefs, Motivation, Learning Approach, and Achievement

The authors proposed a model to explain how epistemological beliefs, achievement motivation, and learning approach related to achievement. The authors assumed that epistemological beliefs influence achievement indirectly through their effect on achievement motivation and learning approach. Participants were 1,041 6th-grade students. Results of the path analysis suggested that students who believed knowledge to be evolving (i.e., development) and handed down by authority (i.e., source) were more likely to be self-efficacious in their learning and were found to have higher levels of learning- and performance-goal orientations. In addition, although learning goal was positively related to meaningful learning, performance goal and self-efficacy were negatively related to the learning approaches. The direction of the relation between learning approaches and achievement was positive.