The examination of epistemological beliefs and teaching-learning conceptions of primary school teachers

In this study, it is aimed to examine the primary school teachers' epistemological beliefs and their teaching-learning conceptions. According to the demographic characteristics of the teachers such as gender, age, marital status, educational status and seniority, it is examined whether there is a relationship between epistemological beliefs and their teaching-learning conceptions. Descriptive scanning model was used in the research. The study was carried out with 372 primary school teachers working in Burdur province in 2017-2018 academic year. The data of the study were collected via "Teaching-Learning Conceptions Scale" developed by Chan and Elliott (2004) and adapted to Turkish by Aypay (2011), "Epistemological Belief Scale" developed by Schommer (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Karhan (2007) and "Personal Information Form" containing the demographic characteristics of teachers. The analysis of the data was done with a computer package program. In the analysis of the data, frequency, percentage, rank average, Mann-WhitneyU, Kruskall-WallisH, Spearman Brown Rank Differences Correlation tests were used. According to the research results, it is seen that; whereas primary school teachers have a moderate level of epistemological belief in "learning is not dependent on effort" and "knowledge is single and precise" sub-dimensions, they are at the level of sophisticated belief in the sub-dimension of "the source of knowledge is expert" and "learning is talent job". According to another result of the research; while primary school teachers are undecided about traditional teaching approaches, it is seen that they have a very positive attitude towards constructivist approach. In the study, significant findings were obtained in favor of male teachers according to the gender variable of epistemological beliefs. In the study, while there was a significant difference according to age, marital status and seniority variables, no significant difference was found according to the educational status variable. In the study, male teachers adopt the constructivist learning approach more than female teachers. There was a significant difference between primary school teachers' teaching-learning conceptions and variables such as marital status, education level, seniority and age. As a result, it is seen that there is a positive relationship between teachers' traditional teaching-learning conceptions and epistemological beliefs. Considering the constructivist teaching-learning conceptions and epistemological beliefs, a moderately significant negative relationship with the "information source" dimension, a low meaningful negative relationship with the "learning is not dependent on effort" dimension, a very low level meaningless relationship with the "single and precise dimension of information" were determined. KeyWords: Epistemological Belief, Primary School Teacher, Teaching-Learning Conceptions