Epistemological Beliefs, Scientific Literacy, and Gender of Pre-Service Biology Teachers in Colleges of Education, Nigeria

This study examined the levels of epistemological beliefs and their relationship with scientific literacy and gender among pre-service Biology teachers in Osun State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was employed, involving 221 purposively selected participants from two Colleges of Education. Two instruments the Epistemological Beliefs Scale (reliability = 0.77) and Scientific Literacy Scale (reliability = 0.72) were used to gather data. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were applied to assess the levels of epistemological beliefs, while Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was used to examine relationships between variables. Findings revealed that the pre-service Biology teachers demonstrated a high level of epistemological beliefs. However, no significant relationship was found between epistemological beliefs and scientific literacy (r = -0.16, p > 0.05), epistemological beliefs and gender (r = 0.03, p > 0.05), or scientific literacy and gender (r = 0.62, p > 0.05). The study concluded that although the pre-service teachers possessed strong epistemological beliefs, these beliefs were not significantly linked to their scientific literacy or gender. Thus, factors beyond epistemological beliefs may influence scientific literacy among pre-service Biology teachers, suggesting the need for further research into other contributing variables.