Examining the relation between epistemological beliefs and measurement and evaluation methods used by high school teachers

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relation between the epistemological beliefs of high school teachers and the measurement and evaluation methods they use during the teaching process. The analysis of the epistemological beliefs of teachers according to demographic variables was also among the sub-purposes of the study. The study, which was designed in the quantitative research fashion, was conducted in the correlational screening pattern. The universe of the study consisted of teachers from various branches working at public high schools in Diyarbakir, Elazığ, Malatya and Şanlıurfa provinces in the second semester of 2017-2018 Academic Year. The sampling of the study consisted of a total of 819 high school teachers who were determined with disproportionate cluster sampling from the universe. The data were collected with two tools in the study. The first was the "Epistemological Belief Information Form", and the other was the "Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale". The Epistemological Belief Information Form was developed by the researcher, and consists of a total of 11 items, six of which are related to the demographic information, and five to the teaching methods, and measurement and evaluation methods used by teachers. The Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale was developed by Elder (1999), and was adapted into Turkish by Acat, Tüken and Karadağ (2010). This scale consists of 25 sub-dimensions and has 5 sub-dimensions; "Authority and Accuracy", "Information Generation Process", "Source of Information", "Reasoning" and "Changeability of Information". The data obtained in the study were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 Package Program. In the analyses, descriptive statistical techniques like frequencies, percentages, mean values, standard deviations, independent samples "t" Test, and One-Way Variance Analysis were used. In these analyses, p=0.05 was accepted as the level of significance. The Logistic Regression Analysis was used for the analysis of the relations between the epistemological beliefs of teachers and the measurement and evaluation methods they used. The results of the analyses made in the present study according to the sub-purposes of the study order were as follows: The vast majority of high school teachers take into account the nature of the information contained in the subject contents when teaching courses and preparing questions for examinations. However, the same teachers often use the traditional teaching methods and measurement and evaluation techniques during their teaching processes. Approximately half of the high school teachers included in the study found themselves partially sufficient in the knowledge philosophy (i.e. epistemology). The epistemological belief perception levels of the high school teachers who participated in the study differed according to the sub-dimensions of the relevant scale. These teachers had underdeveloped traditional epistemological beliefs in the "Authority and Accuracy"; developed modern epistemological beliefs in the "Information Generating Process", "Reasoning" and "Changeability of Information" dimensions; and moderate mixed epistemological beliefs in the "Source of Information" sub-dimension. The same teachers had moderate and mixed epistemological beliefs in general in the Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale. The epistemological belief perception levels of the high school teachers who were included in the study differed at significant levels in terms of gender, professional seniority, branch, educational status, faculty graduated, school type where the teachers worked variables, and in various sub-dimensions of the scale. In addition, it was also found in the present study that the epistemological belief perception levels of high school teachers predicted the traditional measurement-evaluation methods they used in the "Source of Information" sub-dimension. Although the high school teachers included in the study took into account the nature of information during the teaching process, they used the traditional teaching and measurement and evaluation methods that did not comply with the epistemological nature of the existing teaching programs in educational situations and examinations. These indecisive behaviors of the high school teachers included in the study were considered to be an inconsistency between theory and practice during the teaching process, and possible causes and consequences of this were discussed. The possible reasons that emerged in these discussions were the lack of program literacy skills with adequate epistemological knowledge of teachers, the way they were raised and the dominant education culture in the school, centralized examinations, lack of physical and technological equipment in schools, and facilitation. The result that although the high school teachers included in the study took into account the nature of the information, they did not transfer it to the teaching process was evaluated as the failure in fully reflecting the epistemological nature of the current constructivist teaching programs to practice. Based on these results, it is recommended that the shortcomings of high school teachers are eliminated in terms of epistemology to implement the existing teaching programs properly.