EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS AND METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES OF ELT PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN DISTANCE AND FORMAL EDUCATION

The epistemological beliefs in learning process have been investigated from different aspects in relation with many variables in literature. Such beliefs are defined as individuals’ beliefs regarding knowledge and learning. As another related, popular concept, the metacognitive strategies are identified as the strategies used to control the process of obtaining knowledge.Thus, it is seen that both of them are employed to make learning more effective. Within this framework, the aim of the present study was to determine the epistemological beliefs and metacognitive strategies of the pre-service teachers in the distance and formal education English Language Teaching program and to investigate whether there was any difference/ were any differences between them. To collect data, “Epistemological Belief Scale” developed by Schommer (1990) and translated and validated by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk (2002) and “Metacognitive Strategy Inventory” which was adapted for university students by Yıldız, Akpınar and Ergin (2006) were used. Then through the descriptive method they were analyzed.As a result of study, it was determined that there was a significant relationship between the epistemological beliefs and metacognitive strategy use of ELT pre-service teachers in both formal and distance education programs.