Background: Epistemological beliefs and motivational factors aresignificant predictors of achievement in science.

Purpose: To understand how social context factors shape episte-mological beliefs and motivational factors and how they pass theinfluences to achievement in science.

Sample: A population of ninth graders in an underdevelopedregion of southwest China (N = 2655).

Design and Methods: With science achievement test scores andsurvey data from the sample, we built a structural equation modelon how the students’ epistemological beliefs and motivationalfactors mediate the effects of a set of social context factors ontheir achievement in science. Gender and rural-urban differencesare also explored.

Results: Intrinsic motivation and epistemological beliefs signifi-cantly predicted achievements in science. Epistemological beliefsdirectly and indirectly affected achievement in science, with intrin-sic motivation mediating its indirect effects. Among the social con-text factors, teacher influence and informal learning experiencespositively predicted epistemological beliefs; family encouragementnegatively predicted epistemological beliefs; only informal learningexperiences directly affected intrinsic motivation. Significant rural-urban and gender differences were found.

Conclusion: Access to informal science learning experiences canplay a crucial role in transforming the social environments in under-developed regions, promoting students’ epistemological develop-ment and intrinsic motivation, and, in turn, their achievement inscience. Fostering students’ epistemological development may alsorequire identifying and reconciling the conflicts between epistemo-logical messages from home and school.