Ways of Knowing: Their Association with Gender and Higher Order Thinking

The study of people’s beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, has been under intense investigation since the 1990s. Much of the research following this conception has found multiple links between epistemological beliefs and learning. Research examining women’s personal epistemology found two beliefs that tend to be gender related, connected knowing and separate knowing. Connected knowing is characterized by empathizing and placing oneself within another person’s situation to see from the inside out. Separate knowing, while not the opposite of connected knowing, is characterized by detaching oneself from a situation to analyze and be objective in an argument. Both ways of knowing have been hypothesized to support higher order thinking. The purpose of this study is to test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between ways of knowing and the established epistemological beliefs, as well as, the relationship between ways of knowing and need for cognition. The concept of an individual’s need for cognition has been described as one’s tendencies to “engage in and enjoy thinking” (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116). They determined that an individual may have either a high or low need for cognition.