Students’ personal epistemologies, or their beliefs about knowledge and knowing, have a substantial impact on learning, affecting their responses to curriculum, strategy selection, and psychosocial variables. Changes in epistemological reasoning occur similarly to other stage-based developmental schemes, with qualitative shifts in worldviews at each stage. Some research suggests that gifted students tend to develop higher levels of epistemological reasoning earlier than same-aged typically developing peers. The current study extends research in developmental differences to middle school students. A total of 189 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade gifted or typical students completed the Learning Context Questionnaire. An analysis of variance was conducted to determine differences by Gifted Status and Grade Level. Results of the analysis revealed significant differences between gifted and typical students, with modest effect size, at each grade level. The discussion includes implications for understanding giftedness and related need for rich inquiry-based learning environments.

中文翻译：

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天才中学生和典型发展中学生之间的认识论差异

学生的个人认识论，或他们对知识和认知的信念，对学习有重大影响，影响他们对课程、策略选择和社会心理变量的反应。认识论推理的变化与其他基于阶段的发展方案类似，每个阶段的世界观都会发生质的变化。一些研究表明，天才学生往往比同龄的典型发展同龄人更早地发展出更高水平的认识论推理。目前的研究将发展差异的研究扩展到中学生。共有 189 名六年级、七年级和八年级资优或典型学生完成了学习情境问卷。进行了方差分析以确定天才状态和年级的差异。分析结果显示，在每个年级水平上，天才学生和典型学生之间存在显着差异，影响大小适中。讨论包括对理解天才的影响以及对丰富的基于探究的学习环境的相关需求。