There were two focuses in this study. The first one was to investigate the relationship among science
achievement, metacognition, and epistemological beliefs for both 4th and 5th grade and 6th through 8th grade
students. The second focus was to explore the relationships among gender, socioeconomic status (SES),
metacognition, and epistemological beliefs. Altogether 941 elementary students participated in this study. For 4th
and 5th grade students, knowledge of cognition, regulation of cognition, and quick learning contributed to science
achievement. For 6th through 8th grade students, knowledge of cognition, regulation of cognition, innate ability, and
quick learning contributed to science achievement. For both group of students, while metacognition was related both
to gender and SES, epistemological beliefs were mostly related to gender.
Key words: science achievement, epistemological beliefs, metacognition, SES, gender
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