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Data from 183 children across five preschools show dogmatic beliefs dominate (54%), skeptical thoughts are substantial (38%), and 8% have not yet formed conceptual knowledge.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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five-year-old children?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"To analyze and mathematically model children’s epistemological views, predicting how missing domains in young children’s epistemological thoughts evolve.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How was children’s epistemological belief data collected?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale for Children (EBSC), adapted from Elder’s Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale and administered as a three-point Likert-type scale.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What do the results indicate about children’s epistemological views?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Descriptive statistics show dogmatic thoughts are most common (54%), a considerable proportion of children hold skeptical thoughts (38%), and 8% have not yet constructed conceptual 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University  \nVolkan Şahin, Middle East Technical University Aysel Berksoy Taşdan, University College London Semra Erkan, Hacettepe University  \nAbstract  \nEpistemology is a branch of philosophy that focuses on the source, nature, limitations, system and accuracy of human knowledge. Children’s epistemological views start to develop in the very early years as they gradually develop the ability to understand others’beliefs, actions, and desires, with primary attention to the onset of this cognitive achievement occurs between the ages of 3 and 5 (Burr and Hofer, 2002). The purpose of the current study was to analyze and model epistemological views of five-year-old children. The mathematical model developed for this study attempts to predict to what direction the missing domains in young children’s epistemological thoughts will be evolved. Significant and profound changes in children's concept of the mind occurs between the ages of 3 and 5, allowing a five-year-old perform better in some tasks in the cognitive field (Gopnik andAstington, 1988). This study was carried out with a total of 183 five-year-old children (79 boys and 84 girls), from five state preschools. The Epistemological Beliefs Scale for Children (EBSC) was used for the data collection. EBSC is based on Elder’s (2002) Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale (SEBS) and was adapted for children by the researchers of the current study. EBSC consists of 25 practical items in the following five sub-dimensions: authority/accuracy, knowledge production process, sources of knowledge, hypothesizing, and change of knowledge. EBSC was prepared as a three-point Likert-type scale with the Cronbach alpha value of .87. According to the results of the descriptive statistics obtained from EBSC, dogmatic thoughts shaped children’s epistemological views (54%). In particular, authority/accuracy, the source of knowledge and hypothesizing sub-dimensions of epistemological views were the areas in which dogmatic thinking was most apparent. Despite not being in the majority, a considerable percentage of children (38%) had skeptical thoughts, which is a promising result. The remaining 8% of the children had not yet constructed conceptual knowledge.  \nKeywords: early childhood education; philosophy; children’s epistemological views; mathematical model for epistemology  \n118 Güneş, Şahin, Taşdan, & Erkan—Mathematical Modeling  \nIntroduction  \nDriven by the strongest, intrinsic curiosity, humankind has been trying to discover itself, life, and the world since the beginning of time. Being one of the natural results of this process, philosophy, as the oldest scientific discipline, offers many different answers to the same questions since the ancient Greek times. Defined as a love of wisdom, philosophy not only focuses on many fields such as ontology, education, science, ethics and art but also directs the development of these fields.  \nEpistemology, as a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge, poses questions about the source, nature, limitations, system and accuracy of human knowledge (Brownlee, Purdie and Boulton-Lewis, 2001; Hofer and Pintrich, 2002; Ravindran, Greene and DeBacker, 2005). According to Mascaro and Morin (2015), there is no theory “that would unify the range of epistemic intuitions elicited by falsity and truth, by facts and by the way propositions adhere to them (or fail to do so) (p. 1)”. Even so, epistemology focuses on the structure, sources, boundaries and justification of knowledge while personal epistemology in psychological literature relates to individuals’ perceptions on what knowledge is and how to know (Hofer and Bendixen, 2012; Ryan, 1984) .  \nPersonal epistemology is interested in what individuals believe about the source , certainty, and organization of knowledge, as well as the control and the speed of learning. Epistemological be","cbCaih1KIuuXcuf4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaih1KIuuXcuf4","pdf",403597,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What is the goal of the study on five-year-old children?\",\"answer\":\"To analyze and mathematically model children’s epistemological views, predicting how missing domains in young children’s epistemological thoughts evolve.\"},{\"question\":\"How was children’s epistemological belief data collected?\",\"answer\":\"Using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale for Children (EBSC), adapted from Elder’s Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale and administered as a three-point Likert-type scale.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the results indicate about children’s epistemological views?\",\"answer\":\"Descriptive statistics show dogmatic thoughts are most common (54%), a considerable proportion of children hold skeptical thoughts (38%), and 8% have not yet constructed conceptual knowledge.\"}]","Mathematical Modeling of Preschool Children’s Epistemological Views | PDF",1792089628]