Quantitative Research on Gifted Students’ Scientific Epistemological Beliefs

Abstract

This study explores the scientific epistemological beliefs of gifted students. It attempts to investigate gender, age and grade level-based differences in scientific epistemological beliefs. The study group comprised 120 gifted students (67 girls, 53 boys). To determine the scientific epistemological beliefs of these students, the Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Survey was employed. The results reveal that while the average scores of fifth and sixth-grade students were close to each other, the highest mean epistemological beliefs score was at the seventh and eighth-grade levels. Thus, there is a positive change in the scientific epistemological beliefs of gifted students who receive more science education. Statistically, the results showed that the difference between the epistemological beliefs scores of the female and male students was not statistically significant.