Although encouraging student creativity is a commonly recognised goal of STEM education, there is a lack of research in this area. In this study, the effects of epistemic beliefs on STEM creativity and the mediation of intellectual risk-taking were investigated. The subjects were 461 primary students in Hong Kong. The findings revealed that (i) intellectual risk-taking was a significant and positive predictor of STEM creativity; (ii) the certainty and justification dimensions of epistemic beliefs had direct, negative and significant impacts on STEM creativity; and (iii) the complexity dimension of epistemic beliefs had both direct and indirect significantly positive impacts on STEM creativity, and the indirect impacts were mediated by intellectual risk-taking. This study revealed the complicated relationships between different orientations in epistemic beliefs and STEM creativity, which include both constraining and facilitating effects, and both direct and indirect impacts. We argue that although reducing naïve and relativistic epistemic beliefs is essential for the development of creativity in STEM education, the effects of cultivating mature epistemic beliefs may not be sufficient. Further direct and explicit approaches are required to more effectively enhance students’ STEM creativity. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Building on Carey and Smith’s work on epistemology of science, this study characterized elementary students’ scientific epistemology from the role-of-idea and theory-building perspective. The participants included 102 elementary students in Hong Kong. Open-ended questions and coding schemes were developed to examine and characterize their epistemic understanding of science. Four key dimensions were identified: role of idea, theory-fact understanding, theory revision and creation, and social process of scientific progress. The general pattern showed that students’ views of scientific inquiry ranged from seeing it as a mechanical process involving concrete materials and sets of scientific skills, to viewing it as an idea-driven process comprising collective theory-building and knowledge creation. The analysis showed that these students generally had a limited understanding of the role-of-idea and theory-building in science. Quantitative analysis indicated that this conceptualized epistemology of science was an important predictor of students’ academic performance in science. Implications for science education and future research are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0411-4]

The role of beliefs on teaching and learning has been evidenced in research literature as influencing the success or failure of curriculum and instruction. Within the belief system, the epistemological beliefs are found to relate to meta-cogntive activities (Schommer, 1994) , which are considered important in leaning and teacher professionalization. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted by the author to examine the epistemological beliefs of Hong Kong teacher education students, based on a questionnaire adapted from that of Schommer (1991) and any possible relation between epistemological beliefs with demographic variables such as age, gender and electives. The issue is approached from a comparative perspectives with results discussed with reference to both the Hong Kong (Chinese) cultural context and western (North America) culture. Implications are drawn from the cultural base, with suggestions for future development in teacher education programs and possible direction of research.
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A survey study was conducted to examine the epistemological beliefs and study approaches of a group of Hong Kong teacher education students. Results showed that epistemological beliefs and study approaches of the students were independent of age, gender and electives. Correlation analysis, however, indicated that the students' epistemological beliefs were related to their study approaches. Beliefs in innate/fixed ability, authority/expert knowledge and certainty knowledge were positively related to surface approach, surface motive and surface strategy in learning while belief in learning effort/process was positively related to deep approach, deep motive and strategy in learning. A negative relation was also identified between belief in authority/expert knowledge and deep approach, motive and strategy. The results supported the suggestions in research literature that epistemological beliefs were related to meta-cognitive activities and implications were drawn for teaching and learning as well as future research in this area.
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