Epistemic and efficacy beliefs jointly shape students’ self-directed learning with technology across elementary through high school

Self-directed learning with technology (SDLT) is a foundational competence for lifelong learning, yet the psychological mechanisms governing its development across different schooling stages remain under-explored. This study investigates how Internet epistemic beliefs (IEB) and Internet-based learning self-efficacy (IBLSE) jointly influence SDLT by testing an integrated framework across school levels. Drawing on a sample of 1219 K-12 students in Taiwan, multigroup structural equation modeling was employed to examine developmental trajectories and structural relationships. Results revealed that while IBLSE and SDLT levels remained stable across grades, IEBs showed significant developmental growth. Crucially, the findings identify IBLSE as a vital motivational bridge, fully or partially mediating the relationship between adaptive epistemic beliefs and self-directed behaviors. Formal testing confirmed that this epistemic-motivational mechanism is structurally invariant from elementary through senior high school, indicating that the internal pathways to autonomous digital learning are established early and remain consistent. These findings advance theoretical models of self-regulation by validating epistemic beliefs as internal task conditions that activate motivational appraisals to foster autonomous behavior in technology-mediated contexts.