American Educational Research Association 2000, New Orleans: Roundtable Constructivism and Teacher Epistemology: Training Teachers in Classroom Computer Use 1

The NASA Classroom of the Future ™ sponsored a residential training course to help teachers learn to use computer-based educational tools and explore constructivist instructional approaches. Researchers hypothesized that creating a living-and-learning environment for the training would foster rapid changes in teachers’ epistemological beliefs. Pretest-posttest differences on an epistemology inventory indicated that teachers changed significantly on three of four factors related to constructivist teaching philosophies (Simple Knowledge, Quick Learning and Certain Knowledge). The fourth factor (Fixed Ability) did not reveal significant changes. These findings have two implications: 1) constructivist approaches to training teachers may promote epistemological change, and 2) epistemology may be a less stable trait than was previously supposed.