The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 50 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Epistemological Understanding as a Metacognitive Process: Thinking Aloud During Online Searching
Abstract
Personal epistemology has typically been conceptualized in one of two primary ways: as a cognitive developmental process or as a system of beliefs. The approach that is elaborated here is to conceive of epistemological understanding as a metacognitive process that activates epistemic theories, a multidimensional set of interrelated beliefs about knowledge and knowing. Building on the work of Flavell (1979), K. S. Kitchener (1983), and Kuhn (1999b), this article describes the rationale for conceptualizing epistemological awareness at the metacognitive level, delineates the nature of this construct, and describes how this directs methodological choices for research. This is discussed in light of a recent study of students' online searching for a simulated science assignment, investigated through the use of think-aloud protocols. Exploring students' thought processes during online searching allows examination of personal epistemology not as a decontextualized set of beliefs, but as an activated, situated aspect of cognition that influences the knowledge construction process.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Citations
Cites
Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental inquiry
Flavell, J. H. (1979) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 · Cited by 11,282 · cited 3×
“Considering the epistemic aspects of metacognition as an important component of the process returns us to the more expansive understanding of the processes initially described (Flavell, 1979).”
BackgroundCacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.116 · Cited by 5,359
Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind
Brookes, A.-L., Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1988) · Curriculum Inquiry · doi:10.2307/1179565 · Cited by 4,916
Book Review: Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data
Venkatesan, M., Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1986) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.2307/3151491 · Cited by 4,364
Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years; A Scheme
Perry, W. G. (1970) · Cited by 4,179
Reliability and Predictive Validity of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Mslq)
Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A. F., Garcia, T., & Mckeachie, W. J. (1993) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/0013164493053003024 · Cited by 3,646
Hofer, B. K., & Pintrich, P. R. (1997) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/00346543067001088 · Cited by 3,181
Self-citationCacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Feinstein, J. A., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1996) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.197 · Cited by 2,517
Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension.
Schommer, M. (1990) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-0663.82.3.498 · Cited by 2,215
Kuhn, D. (1991) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511571350 · Cited by 2,094
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Handbook of Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance
(2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315697048 · Cited by 1,977
Muis, K. R., Bendixen, L. D., & Feucht, F. C. (2006) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-006-9003-6 · Cited by 574
A review of research on metacognition in science education: current and future directions
Zohar, A., & Barzilai, S. (2013) · Studies in Science Education · doi:10.1080/03057267.2013.847261 · Cited by 436
The Role of Epistemic Beliefs in Self-Regulated Learning
Muis, K. R. (2007) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1080/00461520701416306 · Cited by 462
Source Evaluation, Comprehension, and Learning in Internet Science Inquiry Tasks
Wiley, J., Goldman, S. R., Graesser, A. C., Sanchez, C. A., Ash, I. K., & Hemmerich, J. A. (2009) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.3102/0002831209333183 · Cited by 419
Metadata
- Authors
- Hofer, B. K.
- Corresponding author
- Hofer, Barbara K.
- ORCID
- Hofer, Barbara K.
- Venue
- Educational Psychologist
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2004-01-01
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 43-55
- ISSN
- 0046-1520 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-6985
- OpenAlex
- W1963612400
- Cited by
- 573
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 34.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Educational Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Keywords
- personal epistemology, epistemic theory, metacognition, epistemic awareness, web search, think-aloud, knowledge construction, situated cognition
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
