A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study investigates the relationship between secondary school students' epistemological beliefs and their academic achievement in the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh. Epistemological beliefs are individuals' views regarding the nature of knowledge, including its certainty, simplicity, and the processes through which it is acquired and evaluated. Academic achievement, in this context, is measured by students' performance in exams and coursework. The primary objective of this study is to examine how students' beliefs about knowledge influence their learning approaches and, in turn, impact their academic success. We hypothesized that the relationship between epistemological beliefs and academic performance is bidirectional, with students' learning strategies and task demands affecting both their beliefs and outcomes. Additionally, we speculated that traditional teaching methods might reinforce certain epistemic beliefs, aligning them with conventional learning practices. To explore these ideas, we conducted a comparative analysis of the epistemological beliefs of students across three academic performance categories—high, average, and low performers comprising a sample of 200 students from secondary schools in the Krishna District. The research sought to determine whether differences in epistemological beliefs correlate with variations in academic performance within the specific context of Andhra Pradesh educational system. The findings indicate a significant positive correlation between students' epistemological beliefs and their academic achievements. Specifically, students who possessed more sophisticated and complex beliefs about the nature of knowledge tended to perform better academically. These results suggest that fostering more advanced epistemological beliefs among students could potentially enhance their learning processes and lead to improved academic outcomes.