One of the central unresolved conceptual issues that concerns researchers of personal epistemology is the characterization of the intersection between personal epistemology and cognitional. The contested and diverse nature of both constructs makes untangling their connections a complex yet vital task. The purpose of this article is to advance the…

Dialogue, as a communication form characterized by its commitment to inclusiveness and rationality, has long been advocated by educators as a mechanism for helping students become better thinkers. Unfortunately, numerous claims about the educational potential of participating in dialogue have not resulted in substantial changes in classroom…

In this theoretical contribution, our purpose is to examine the nature of reading competence as it unfolds at the present and to project that nature into the future. More specifically, we ask what it will mean to be a competent reader for the 21st century and what combination of knowledge, beliefs, abilities, and processes that competence will…

In present-day knowledge societies, competent reading involves the integration of information from multiple sources into a coherent, meaningful representation of a topic, issue, or situation. This article reviews research and theory concerning the comprehension of multiple textual resources, focusing especially on linkages recently established…

This article presents a commentary on Stellan Ohlsson's (2009) theory of conceptual change by resubsumption and competitive evaluation of cognitive utility. We note two features of Ohlsson's theory that we think are particularly strong. We then argue that Ohlsson's theory explains one route to conceptual change but that there are many other routes…

Ohlsson's proposal of resubsumption as the dominant process in conceptual, or nonmonotonic, change presents a worthy challenge to more established theories, such as Chi's theory of ontological shift. The two approaches differ primarily in that Ohlsson's theory emphasizes a process of learning in which narrower, more specific concepts are subsumed…

The three commentaries on the resubsumption theory highlight three key ideas: that the term "conceptual change", as commonly used, is ambiguous between "change in the meaning of a concept" and "change in what someone believes"; that there are multiple routes to successful learning of conceptual subject matters; and that the noticing of a…

Why is conceptual change difficult yet possible? Ohlsson (2009/this issue) proposes that the answer can be found in the dynamics of resubsumption, or the process by which a domain of experience is resubsumed under an intuitive theory originally constructed to explain some other domain of experience. Here, it is argued that conceptual change is…

In response to a stimulating article by David C. Geary on the value of understanding the evolutionary basis of learning as a guide to instruction, I raise several objections. When evolutionary theory is used to explain everything from sex differences in math and reading to why children are bored in school, it loses its explanatory power. There is…

In this article, we argue for a change in how researchers study motivation to learn. We believe that research can provide better explanations of the origins and outcomes of behavior, and thus be more useful, if we focus on how motivation develops and why it changes. We suggest reframing motivation research in education by extending the current…

We propose an integration of aspects of several developmental and systems of beliefs models of personal epistemology. Qualitatively different positions, including realism, dogmatism, skepticism, and rationalism, are characterized according to individuals' beliefs across three dimensions in a model of epistemic and ontological cognition. This model…

The purpose of this article is to present an integrated theoretical model between epistemic beliefs and self-regulated learning. Based on a review of various theoretical frameworks, models, and empirical studies that have examined relations between the two constructs, this article discusses the role of epistemic beliefs in self-regulated learning.…

Sociocultural and cognitive perspectives hold to epistemically different views on knowledge acquisition and change. While sociocultural perspectives point to social experience as the principal source of knowledge, cognitive perspectives emphasize the importance of the individual mind and reasoning as the primary source of knowledge. Herein, I…

The purpose of this article is to describe the basic paradigm of the epistemological belief system and to offer new ideas about the conception and study of personal epistemology, namely an embedded systemic model and coordinated teams approach to research. The epistemological belief system approach to personal epistemology is distinguished from…

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…