Using continua to analyze qualitative data investigating epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge: Visualizing beliefs

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Epistemic beliefs about physics are most often investigated using quantitative instruments that reflect binary conceptualizations of those beliefs. This study reports from a qualitative study which used continua to represent the epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge of sixteen Western Canadian, high school physics teachers. Unlike other research, this study did not intend to compare epistemic beliefs to any specific epistemology of science. This article presents a novel, more nuanced means of analyzing interview data to construct profiles to describe epistemic beliefs. The epistemic belief profiles of the physics teachers in this study reflect each of four areas of a literature-derived theoretical framework regarding epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge. These four areas are individuals’ beliefs about the (a) source, (b) content, (c) certainty, and (d) structure of physics knowledge. The use of thematic analysis research methods and reasons for the placement of participants along continua are discussed. Potential classroom applications of this research include prompting discussions about student epistemic beliefs and collecting more nuanced representations of students’ epistemic beliefs to inform teaching.

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Figure 1

Depicting the epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge.

Figure 2

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the source of physics knowledge with participants placed.

Figure 3

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the content of physics knowledge with participants placed.

Figure 4

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the certainty of physics knowledge with participants placed.

Figure 5

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the structure of physics knowledge with participants placed.

Figure 6

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the source of physics knowledge.

Figure 7

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the content of physics knowledge.

Figure 8

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the certainty of physics knowledge.

Figure 9

Continuum of epistemic beliefs about the structure of physics knowledge.