The effect of Jordanian Faculty nembers’ beliefs about scientific knowledge on their teaching behaviors and their female students’ beliefs

Abstract EN

This study aimed at exploring Faculty members’ beliefs about scientific knowledge and how such beliefs affect their instructional behaviors and their female students’ beliefs.

To achieve the purpose of the study, the researchers developed three research instruments : two tests for exploring beliefs and a scale for measuring instructional behaviors.

The instruments were administered to 20 Faculty members and 630 female students in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Al-Hussain Bin Talal University.

The results showed that most of the participating Faculty members had positivist beliefs and behavioral practices (the percentages amounted up to 50 % and 45%, respectively), while a small percentage of them had constructivist beliefs and constructivist practices (the percentages were estimated 20% and 25 %, respectively).

The results, also, showed that Faculty members’ beliefs had a statistically significant effect on their instructional behaviors where the value of Eta2 was calculated as 0.621.

Further, the results showed that 60 % of the female students had positivist beliefs, while a small percentage of them 3.5 % had constructivist beliefs.

It was also found that Faculty members’ beliefs about scientific knowledge had a statistically significant effect on their students’ beliefs where the value of Eta2 was estimated as 0.04.

In light of the results, it is recommended that centers of staff development at universities give more significance to the beliefs of Faculty members and their instructional practices, and further research investigating sources of these beliefs be conducted.