Dear Editor,
The study into individuals'epistemological beliefs (EB, cognitions about knowledge and knowing1) is
booming in the field of (educational) psychology and has lead to very interesting insights in the way
individuals (often students) view knowledge and knowing. In other domains than medicine, EB have
been demonstrated to influence reasoning processes, critical thinking, text processing, learning and
academic achievement. 2-7
Recently, a number of authors have motivated the introduction of the framework of EB into medical
education.8-11 The article we submit relates the development of a questionnaire to assess medical
trainees’ EB. For several reasons we think the results of this study are -if somehow startling- of very
particular interest within the context of the current medical educational settings. We argue in the
discussion section how the finding of only one type of coherent beliefs (in the justification for
knowing) objectivises existing critisism on evidence based medicine.
We do realise that the article is considerably long,
We hope to be able to share our enthousiasm on this study topic with you and to have evoked your
interest in publishing this article.
Yours sincerely,
Ann Roex and Jan Degryse
Reference List
(1) Pintrich P.R. Future Challenges and Directions for Theory and Research on Personal
Epistemology. In: Hofer B.K., Pintrich P.R., editors. Personal Epistemology: The psychology of
Beliefs About Knowledge and Knowing. Mahwah, New Jersey: 2002. 389-413.
(2) De Corte E, Op 't Eynde P, Verschaffel L. "Knowing What to Believe": The Relevance of
Students' Mathematical Beliefs for Mathematics Education. In: Hofer B.K., Pintrich P.R.,
editors. Personal Epistemology: The Psychology of Beliefs About Knowledge and Knowing.
Mahwah, New Jersey, London: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2002. 297-320.
(3) Hofer B.K., Pintrich P.R. The Development of Epistemological Theories: Beliefs About
Knowledge and Knowing and Their Relation to Learning. Review of Educational Research
1997; 67(1):88-140.
(4) Hofer BK. Epistemological understanding as a metacognitive process: Thinking aloud during
Online searching. Educational Psychologist 2004; 39(1):43-55.
(5) Kardash CM, Howell KL. Effects of epistemological beliefs and topic-specific beliefs on
undergraduates' cognitive and strategic processing of dual-positional text. Journal of
Educational Psychology 2000; 92(3):524-535.
(6) Schommer M. Effects of Beliefs About the Nature of Knowledge on Comprehension. Journal
of Educational Psychology 1990; 82(3):498-504.
(7) Schommer M. Epistemological Development and Academic-Performance Among Secondary
Students. Journal of Educational Psychology 1993; 85(3):406-411.
(8) Knight LV, Mattick K. 'When I first came here, I thought medicine was black and white':
Making sense of medical students' ways of knowing. Soc Sci Med 2006; 63(4):1084-1096.
(9) Pena A. Physicians'Beliefs and Evidence Based Medicine. Meducal Education Online 2007; 12.
(10) Pena A, Paco O, Peralta C. Epistemological Beliefs and Knowledge among Physicians: A
Questionnaire Survey. Meducal Education Online 2007; 7:4.
(11) Roex A, Degryse J. Viewpoint: introducing the concept of epistemological beliefs into medical
education: the hot-air-balloon metaphor. Academic Medicine 2007; 82(6):616-620.