Personal epistemology refers to personal theories of individuals on what knowledge is, and how knowledge is justified. The seminal work in personal epistemology was the study conducted by Perry (1968) which presented an abstractized intellectual and ethical trajectory of liberal arts college students interviewed from their freshmen to their senior year.  A number of researches in epistemological beliefs (Kuhn, 1991; Baxter Magolda, 2001; King and Kitchener, 2004), most of which are longitudinal studies, validated the generalized scheme of Perry’s model.  These studies, which spanned decades and investigated variety of respondents, concur that very few individuals, even among the highly educated, have reached the most advanced level of the trajectory.  In other words, very few individuals attain an evaluative mindset, which is capable of viewing points from different perspectives and, at the same time, maintain a firm and explicit standpoint. With this, there has been an insistent a call to include epistemological sophistication as educational goal and outcome (Kuhn, 2000; King & Kitcher, 2004; Hofer, 2004).

The predominance of relativistic mindset in the 1960s was Perry’s primary concern he investigated in his research how pluralism or diversity of perspectives possibly influence the mindset and value systems of Harvard university students.  Nowadays, with the advent of new technologies the source of diverse perspectives goes beyond academic environments.  Paradoxically, however, Liberal Arts environment could provide a more stable setting from which to integrate the diversity of perspectives.  In addition, the more recent models of personal epistemology proposed by Schommer-Aikins (2004) and Hofer (2004) have both stressed the importance of relating epistemological development to other constructs such as metacognition--knowing how one knows, which is deemed to be a pre-requisite to epistemological sophistication.

The present study, which is exploratory in nature, investigated the dimensions of personal epistemology as well as the metacognitive assessment of students in a Philosophy course on Family in a Liberal Education program offered at a University in Metro Manila, Philippines.  The Philosophy subject is described as a preparatory course on marriage and family life. The course clarifies the nature, properties and ends of family as a metaphysical reality. On the practical side, the course investigates and evaluates the state of interpersonal relationships in relation to marriage and family as well as the popular notions and beliefs regarding these institutions in contemporary culture.

There were a total of 13 respondents or students enrolled during the second semester of school year 2017-2018 with intact answers to a mid-term and final test, serving as pre-test and post-test.  The responses were tabulated, compared and contrasted, and the themes were extracted from the responses to answer the research questions focusing on 1) the level of metacognitive awareness of the students and 2) their justifications of either shifting or unchanging personal beliefs about family and marriage—considered as the indicators of personal epistemological development in the study.  The specific research questions are: 1) How accurate is the students’ perceived change in answers on the topics of marriage and family? 2) In what specific topics of family and marriage have the students changed or deepened perspectives, after having gone through the course? 3) From the reasons or justifications cited by the students to support their final position in relation to controversial topics in Family and Marriage, which among the dimensions of personal epistemology, can they be categorized.  The dimensions include the following: a) Justification by Authority—reference to and reliance on testimonies, teachings and assertions of persons regarded highly for the purpose to establishing validity and truth; b) Personal Justification—reliance on and drawing from one’s logic, knowledge, and experiences to establish validity or truth; and, c) Simple and Certain Knowledge—the degree of perceived simplicity or complexity of the body of knowledge based on the existence of multiple views and broad range or area of study; as well as its certainty and uncertainty based on the changing nature, practice, and innovations (adapted from Greene, 2007).

Findings reveal that while the students’ metacognitive level may not be accurate or high, their personal epistemology is indeed malleable and with the philosophical training of the academic course—which is a form of intervention, students can be helped to become increasingly sophisticated.