Epistemological beliefs and reading competence: inferences identified in the reading of multiple texts

Abstract

This is a descriptive correlational study in which epistemological beliefs about knowledge and the process of knowing were studied at two levels, one general and the other particular to a topic: bullying. The role of reading competence was analyzed. University undergraduate students in psychology and graduate students in education participated; they answered questions about different instruments to evaluate epistemological beliefs, previous knowledge about the topic, identification of inferences in three different texts, as well as an individual interview regarding the task. The results showed high degrees of sophistication in the beliefs in most of the dimensions for the topic of bullying, and the belief of justification of knowledge in its general and particular levels stands out; the amount of identified inferences were not affected by the previous knowledge, but they were positively related to the degree of sophistication of the beliefs in the different dimensions.