Since the last two decades, there have been increasing interests and researches on epistemological beliefs, including the theoretical framework, dimensional structure, and the relations with metacognitive variables in learning. Many of the researches on epistemological beliefs were conducted in Western countries, mainly North America, with few studies in non-Western countries such as the Chinese culture (Chan & Elliott, 2004a). The varied number and nature of epistemological belief dimensions reported in literature suggest the cultural specificity of epistemological beliefs, and the need to conduct more epistemological beliefs research in different cultures to enable us a better understanding of the beliefs structure (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997). The identified relation between epistemological beliefs and reading comprehension (Schommer, 1994) highlight the relative importance of epistemological beliefs in students’ learning. As well, the relations between epistemological beliefs and other metacognitive variables, such as learning strategies, motivation, conceptions about learning and teaching, etc., definitely are significant in helping us understand student learning and these studies would shape the future direction of epistemological beliefs research. Studies of this nature in different cultural contexts would also provide valuable information for researchers and educators. In light with this, the present paper reports the author’s research in epistemological beliefs, and the relations with metacognitive variables in learning and teaching in the Hong Kong Chinese cultural context. The research includes the development of a validated epistemological beliefs scale with satisfactory psychometric properties, relational analyses of epistemological beliefs and learning approaches/strategies, and conceptions of teaching and learning. The information is expected to add new knowledge in this area and be of value to those interested in epistemological beliefs research.[Copyright
