2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Theories such as cognitive learning theory and fuzzy trace theory suggest that factors such as gender, age, qualification, work experience define learners’ epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes, which in turn affect their learning. This study aims to investigate the relationship between learner attributes such as age-group, gender and program stage, and their epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes. The study is conducted in a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) setting grouping the learners as young adults (aged 18-21), middle (22-29), and seniors (30+). About 650 learners from STEM disciplines undertaking undergraduate and graduate programs are included. The study employs an instrument based on the CLASS (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey) suitably modified for Mathematics to assess the epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes of these learners who are also working professionals. While such studies have been conducted in the past, they were limited to traditional students on campuses, all of whom belonged to a single age group. Findings suggest that there are significant differences across all three attributes. We believe that understanding such patterns will help to develop instructional strategies that are better suited for the learners in this setting.