Student conceptions of knowing: Onto-epistemic categories of epistemic performance in school subjects

Background Apt epistemic performance across formalized subject settings requires students to adapt their performance to the norms and practices of each domain. Such navigation plausibly entails the classification of multiple qualitatively distinct kinds of epistemic performance used by students. More research is needed regarding how students conceptualize knowing in formal school subjects and how those conceptualizations relate to epistemic performance.Methods We inductively coded verbalizations from interviews with upper-secondary school students regarding perceived epistemic demands and performances in the subjects of Danish language arts, mathematics, and social science, before abductively identifying analytical categories.Findings We identified five interrelated but qualitatively different onto-epistemic categories, each defined by particular epistemic criteria, which we labeled facts, opinions, terms, techniques, and inferences. These categories appeared across the subjects examined, with their epistemic criteria having both shared and distinct features. Within and across subjects, students used these categories to make sense of epistemic demands and direct their epistemic performance accordingly.Contribution Our findings suggest ways onto-epistemic categories support students in regulating and adapting their epistemic performances to suit different epistemic domains, with implications for understanding and supporting their engagement with learning and for promoting effective epistemic performance.