The guiding idea in this paper was to study how scientific reasoning correlates with epistemological beliefs and academic achievement. Based on the study at hand, we argue that the nature of epistemological beliefs is still more the product of the level of scientific reasoning than the other way round. As a practical implication we propose that teacher training programmes should consider epistemological beliefs not only as an important aspect that all learners and teachers should be aware of, but it should be recognised as a central factor that affects our formal and informal learning and teaching in all content areas of knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how epistemological beliefs and self-regulation of learning (SRL) differs and how it develops students of various academic domains during their early studies. This study was part of the RYM Indoor Environments project. The data were collected from students in five different departments (teacher education, chemistry, law, theology, electrical engineering) between year 2012 (N = 353) and 2015 (N = 295), with MED NORD -questionnaire (Lonka et al., 2008). The material was analyzed by creating sum variables of epistemological beliefs (Collaborative knowledge building, Reflective learning, Valuing metacognition, Certain knowledge, Practical value) and SRL (Self-regulation, Lack of self-regulation). A one-way analysis of variance was conducted to see how the students from the different departments differed in terms of epistemological beliefs and SRL in the first year of their studies. The development of the epistemological beliefs and SRL was analyzed by paired sample t-test. During the first year of studies, teacher, chemistry and electrical engineering students' epistemological beliefs differed from each other. Teacher students valued collaborative knowledge building, metacognition and practical knowledge the most, and certain knowledge the least. The chemistry and electrical engineering students valued certain knowledge more than the others. SRL most clearly differed between chemistry and law students at the first year. The report showed that law students were the best and chemistry students' were the weakest in self-regulation. In the development of epistemological beliefs the most important finding was that the valuation of certain knowledge decreased in all except law students. In the development of the self-regulation, the major finding was the decrease of the self-reported regulation in law and theology students during their studies. The results of this study indicated that there is disciplinary variation in epistemological beliefs. These beliefs develop during university education. It is possible that the differences in students' epistemological beliefs at the first year occur, because of different interests and orientations before university studies. Studying at university environment can however, change these existing perceptions. In terms of self-regulation of learning more research is needed to find out on how to support students' self-regulation in different learning environments through their studies.