                          The research investigates the extent of change in Physics majors’ cognitive expectations – beliefs about the learning process and the structure of knowledge – after going through their first Introductory Physics course. Using the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) Survey, the students’ responses are compared with the responses of ‘life-long learners of physics’. The students’ post-instruction responses reflected highest agreement with the experts’ response in the Concepts, Reality Link, and Effort Link dimensions of the survey. Analysis of the beliefs profile of the students in the upper quartile compared with the beliefs profile of the students in the lower quartile revealed that a more ‘expert-like’ thinking in the Coherence, Concepts, and Effort Link dimensions is present for the students who performed academically well in class. Keywords—cognitive expectations, academic performance, Introductory Physics, beliefs about learning, MPEX 1. INTRODUCTION The Physics Education Research Group of the University of Maryland posits that what students expect will happen in their Introductory Physics course plays a critical role in how they will respond to the course. Students’ understanding of what science is about and what goes on in a science class affects what information they will listen to (and what they will ignore) given the often large amount of material their teachers flood them with (Redish et al., 1998). The study conducted by Perkins et al. (2004) further suggests that students who come into a physics course with more favorable (expert-like) beliefs are more likely to achieve higher learning gains. In order to achieve the goal of increasing student’s appreciation and understanding of physics, there is a need to look at how students view physics and physics learning as these factors play a significant role in the learning process. The current study looks at how freshman Physics majors’ cognitive expectations – expectations about the learning process and the structure of knowledge – change after going through their first Introductory Physics course. The study also looked at the relationship between the beliefs held by the students in the different dimensions of the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) Survey and the students’ academic performance. In this paper, the students’ cognitive expectations were documented using the The Manila Journal of Science :1 (2011) pp. 1-6 7 © 2011 De La Salle University - Manila, Philippines