Bektić Mihaljević, Maja.
(2016).
The relationship of epistemic beliefs and motivational variables to student’s engagement in biology classes.
Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology.
[mentor Pavlin-Bernardić, Nina].
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate whether epistemic beliefs, motivational variables can predict the student's engagement in biology classes. Four criteria variables were used: behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, pleasant emotions and unpleasant emotions. The study involved 355 second and third grade students from two high schools in Zagreb. They filled a questionnaire containing a scale of values scale, self-efficacy scale, the scale of student's engagement and scale of epistemic beliefs. Some general information about students were also collected: age, gender, class, previous success in biology, the expected grade in biology, student's intention to select biology as an elective subject at graduation, level of mathematics which they will choose at graduation and college which they would like to enter. Factor analysis did not confirm the three-factor structure of values, but only one factor. It also did not confirm a four-factor structure of epistemic beliefs, but two factors (evaluation and development). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that motivational variables and epistemic beliefs are important predictors of different dimensions of student's engagement in teaching biology.
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