The relationship between social studies teachers' epistemological beliefs and their teaching styles

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social studies teachers' epistemological beliefs and their teaching styles. In the scope of this study, the participants' epistemological belief levels and adopted teaching styles were also examines based on the variables of gender, age, professional experience, education level, faculty and program graduated, type and socio-economic level of school worked at, and the state of having or not having a social studies classroom at school. Survey model was used in the study. The participants' epistemological belief levels were measured with "Epistemological Belief Scale" (EBS) which was developed by Schommer (1990) and adapted to Turkish by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk (2002). The data regarding the participants' teaching styles were gathered using "Grasha Teaching Style Inventory" (TSI) which was developed by Grasha (1996) and adapted to Turkish by Üredi (2006). With respect to the participant teachers' demographical characteristics, Personal Information Form was used. The participants were 202 social studies teaching working at the state and private schools within the borders of Eskisehir province in 2013-2014 school year. The data were analysed in SPSS 20.0. The analyses of the research data showed that the participants strongly believed that learning depends on effort. No significant differences were revealed between the participants' demographical characteristics and their epistemological belief levels. It was also found that they mostly adopted facilitator/personal model/expert teaching styles, and there were significant differences between their learning styles and the variables of professional experience, faculty graduated and type of school worked at. As for the analyses on the relationship between the participants' epistemological beliefs and teaching styles they adopted, it was revealed that the belief in the existence of only one truth had a weak and positive relationship with expert teaching style while having a moderately positive and statistically significant relationship with authoritative teaching style. It was found that there was a weak, negative and statistically significant relationship between personal model teaching style and the belief that learning is based on effort. Key Words: Belief, Epistemology, Epistemological Beliefs, Teaching Style, Social Studies Teaching