Philippine E-Journals

This study explores the general epistemological beliefs and the math epistemological beliefs of 169 Korean pre-service math teachers using two questionnaires translated into Korean: the Epistemic Belief Inventory (Bendixen, Schraw, & Dunkle; 1998) and the Discipline-focused Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (Hofer, 2000). The patterns of epistemological beliefs were determined by Principal axis factor analysis, which revealed four factor structures for general epistemological beliefs and two factor structures for math epistemological beliefs. To some degree, the belief patterns involved Korean cultural traits and the mathematics education system. The implications are discussed and suggestions for mathematics teacher education programs are made.