Are beliefs believable? An investigation of college students’ epistemological beliefs and behavior in mathematics

College students’ epistemological belief in their academic performance of mathematics has been documented and is receiving increased attention. However, to what extent and in what ways problem solvers’ beliefs about the nature of mathematical knowledge and thinking impact their performances and behavior is not clear and deserves further investigation. The present study investigated how Taiwanese college students espousing unlike epistemological beliefs in mathematics performed differently within different contexts, and in what contexts these college students’ epistemological beliefs were consistent with their performances and behavior. Results yielded from the survey of students’ performances on standardized tests, semi-open problems, and their behaviors on pattern-finding tasks, suggest mixed consequences. It appears that beliefs played a more reliable role within the well-structured context but lost its credibility in non-standardized tasks.