Epistemic Beliefs and Need for Closure: Effects on Students' Responses to Feedback in a Problem-Based Learning Environment

• In Event: Problem-Based Education SIG Full Paper Session: Teachers and Problem-Based Education

Abstract

An essential component of problem-based learning is the instructor’s feedback during the problem-solving processes. Yet little is known about how students approach feedback, and what factors may cause individual differences in their responses to feedback. This study explored factors related to students’ responses to feedback in an ill-structured problem-solving project in an online course. The study examined the effects of two epistemic factors, epistemic beliefs (EB) and need of closure (NFC), on students’ responses to instructor’s feedback to their problem-solving work in progress. Regression analyses showed that EB and NFC did not directly influence students’ responses, but the interaction between the two was a significant predictor. For students with less mature EB, their levels of response were contingent upon NFC.

Authors

• Kun Huang, Mississippi State University

• Victor Law, University of New Mexico

• Xun Ge, University of Oklahoma