Effects of context-based approaches on high school students’ epistemological beliefs

The current study aimed to examine the effects of context-based approaches on students’ epistemological beliefs. The study used a quasi-experimental pre-post-test design with two treatment groups (TGs) and one comparison group (CG). A total of 131 grade ten students participated in the study. TG 1 received a relating, experiencing, applying, cooperating, and transferring (REACT) strategy of context-based teaching approach, whereas TG 2 received an instruction that was an integration of conventional instruction and context-based approach. Similarly, the CG received conventional instruction to teach the topic of heredity. The epistemological belief of students was measured using Colorado learning attitude science survey for biology version (CLASS-Bio) questionnaire. We analyzed the data using paired t-test and one-way ANOVA. The result indicated that a significant mean score differences was observed between the groups in favor of the TGs. However, a significant difference was not observed between TG 1 and TG 2. This implies that the context-based approach had a positive effect on students’ epistemological belief shifts towards expertise than the conventional instruction.