Domain Specificity and Generality of Epistemic Cognitions: Issues in Assessment

As administers in higher education search for learning outcome measures, the assessment of epistemic cognitions, or how students critically think and reason about real-world issues, is paramount. The current study examined if students' expertise in a domain of study (i.e., domain specificity) influenced their scores on an empirically supported measure of epistemic cognitions: the Reasoning About Current Issues Test (RCI). Results showed that the graduate students (n = 110) exhibited more domain-specific epistemic beliefs than undergraduate students (n = 34) as evidenced by graduate students' lower internal consistency scores and high mean scores on items in their field of study. These findings suggest that the RCI may be a useful measure for undergraduate students; however, it may be more limited as students gain more specific knowledge.