In recent years, state and national governments have introduced major programmes to reform literacy teaching, e.g. textbook programmes in the United States; the Literacy Block in Victoria, Australia (DEET, 1997, 1998); the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in England (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 1998). These programmes are largely based on the growing body of evidence about what may constitute effective literacy teaching. Following the trend, Taiwan‟s government is also recognizing that in order to meet the challenges of globalization and the desire to improve students‟ PIRST in the literacy section year–on-year, Taiwanese should be well-equipped with new knowledge and literacy (Ministry of Education, Taiwan; 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005). One of the ways to make education and training more accessible is by providing better infrastructure, such as building new libraries and providing more books, as well as upgrading the teaching and learning practices through teacher training. There is also an urgent need to improve the declining standards in Chinese literacy (Ministry of Education, Taiwan; 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005). In 2000, the Taiwan Education Commission proposed a Reading Project in an attempt to deal with these challenges, which included the whole language approach (MOE, 2000). This approach was the key guideline for the implementation of the aims of early childhood education for the twenty-first millennium. Therefore, many nurseries and kindergartens claim that they have applied the whole language approach as part of their teaching policy, and have treated it as an important element of their curriculum design. In order to explore the understanding of Taiwanese early year‟s teachers regarding whole language approach and its implementation, a total of 200 questionnaires were delivered to teachers at nurseries and kindergartens. 169 were completed and analyzed. In addition, three Taiwanese nursery teachers participated in an in-depth qualitative study to investigate the implementation of the whole language approach and to explore their understanding of it. During the course of the investigation, their beliefs about literacy teaching and the extent to which those beliefs are reflected in their classroom practices were examined. Their framing of the whole language approach was tracked for more than four months by means of interviews and classroom observations. The wealth of data and information collected revealed that although the whole language approach may be positively mandated on a large scale, individual differences between teachers may make the implementation of any such approach or reform more variable in its impact than researchers and policy makers would expect. The findings indicate that, while teachers sought to include the whole language approach into their literacy teaching, their thinking often shifted and their concept of the whole language approach and literacy learning and teaching fluctuated. The findings also highlight the complexity of these views. The key influences on teachers‟ perceptions of literacy and literacy teaching form a continuum, ranging from a purely discrete skill-based curriculum, which reflects traditional Confucian beliefs, to social interaction, which supports the integration of the whole language approach. This range of beliefs is informed by a variety of different influences, including the experience of teachers; their personal background; their understanding of the needs of parents, as well as those of school requirements; government suggested guidelines, and, finally, cultural demands. Each of these influences represents a unique challenge to the beliefs of teachers. When drawn together, the combination of influences that emerge illustrates the complex ways in which teacher beliefs inform their pedagogical practice. What the data reveals is that the pedagogical practices of teachers were pushed and pulled by these intervening forces, along a continuum between a whole language approach and a more traditional skill-based teaching. Therefore, it is not that they were slow to adopt the utopian whole language approach in practice, nor were they reluctant to change, but that their practice was in reality always constrained by these forces. The findings also indicate that there are immense difficulties in understanding the concept of the whole language approach and a gap between the practitioners‟ espoused theories and practice. The study revealed the complex nature of learning and teaching and the core issue for implementing reform, namely, the need to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Based upon the findings of the study, implications for practice are also considered, namely, the need for government funding and subsidies to help nursery schools to mediate market forces; the restructuring of the bureaucratic and hierarchical management in nurseries; the empowerment of teachers through nurturing their pedagogical competence; support of professional career training; and the ongoing development and reformation of the philosophical underpinnings of teacher training.

回溯過去的研究,教師信念對於其教學行為影響非常深遠，但是對於字彙學習策略融入教學這個議題，相關的研究仍然不多。本研究旨在探討高職英文教師對於字彙學習策略融入教學的信念還有實際的教學情形。文獻探討涵蓋字彙教學的發展、字彙學習策略的理論以及教師信念與實踐。 本研究所蒐集到的有效問卷為二百零一份，研究的對象為台灣的高職英文教師。研究方式採用量化的教師問卷佐以質性的教師訪談。共有八位教師參與本研究的訪談。訪談的內容經過整理分析，用來解釋或補充問卷統計的結果。分析問卷時，採用的統計方法有描述性統計、相關係數、單因子變異數分析。本研究的主題如下：(一) 教師信念及教學情形：分別以認知策略、社會策略、後設認知以及學習媒介等策略來探討、(二)教師信念與其實踐情形是否符合，與造成兩者之間不相符的可能原因以及(三)探討影響教師信念與實踐的各種因素。 本研究的主要發現是： 1. 教師對於字彙學習策略融入教學抱持相當正面的態度，而實踐程度是中低等以上。 2. 由於統計顯示教師信念和實踐是正相關，教師實踐和他們的信念大致符合，不過教師所面臨的一些問題如教學時數限制、學生動機、教科書的設計、資源不足等會使他們無法完全遵照其信念於教學。 3. 一些因素如教學年資、教師學歷、學生程度、英語教學時間長短、教師是否參加字彙相關研習，以及是否接觸學習策略相關的研究報告等確實會影響教師的教學信念與實踐。 本研究有助於了解高職英文教師對於字彙學習策略融入教學的信念以及他們實踐的情形，希望能夠提升老師對於策略教學的覺知。研究者對於英文教師、師資培育機構、教育部還有教師書出版社提出建議改善之道，期望能進一步提升高職的英語教學。 / Although research has shown that teacher beliefs play a decisive role in teachers’ instructional judgments and decisions, their beliefs and practices in integrating vocabulary learning strategies have not gained enough attention in the recent English educational forum. This study aimed to explore what attitudes vocational high school English teachers held toward the instruction of vocabulary learning strategies and their practices of the beliefs. Literature review ranged from vocabulary instruction, vocabulary learning strategies to teachers’ beliefs and practices. The participants of this study were vocational high school teachers in Taiwan. The data collection instruments were questionnaire and interview. The former provided mainly quantitative data and the latter qualitative data. A total of 201 valid questionnaires were analyzed and computed by means of descriptive statistics, correlation, t-test and one-way ANOVA. Eight teachers were contacted for the follow-up interviews. Their interview results were utilized to further support and explain the questionnaire data. There were three issues investigated in this study. The first one was teachers’ beliefs and practices in integrating vocabulary learning strategies into their instruction. Teachers’ beliefs and practices of cognitive strategies, social strategies, multiple sources, and metacognitive strategies were discussed. The second was the consistency and inconsistency between teachers’ beliefs and their practices and the possible problems that might cause the inconsistency. The third one was influential factors that affected teachers’ beliefs and practices. Based on the results of the study, major findings were summarized. First, teachers approved highly of the integration of vocabulary learning strategies and the frequency of their practices ranged from low to high. Second, based on the significant correlation of teachers’ beliefs and practices, the relationship was generally consistent. However, teachers were not able to teach what they believed completely. Some of the strategies revealed larger gap due to the problems from the curriculum, students’ motivation, textbook design and teachers’ preparation. Third, variables such as teachers’ teaching experience, educational background, students’ BCT test score, instructional time, teachers’ attendance of workshops and their exposure to related research were found to be significant in affecting teachers’ beliefs and practices. It is hoped that the study can contribute to more understanding of vocational high school teachers’ beliefs and practices in vocabulary learning strategies. Teachers may inspect their teaching process and raise the awareness of integrating vocabulary learning strategies into their teaching. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher further made suggestions to English teachers, teacher education institutes, the Ministry of Education and the textbook publishers. Results of this study might help enhance English teaching in vocational high schools.

Fostering students’ creativity in school subjects has recently become a central focus of educational researchers, educators, and educational policymakers around the world. In Kuwait, educational researchers and teacher educators have supported the need to foster students’ creativity via a national curriculum. Yet, the Ministry of Education has conducted few studies to explore practitioners’ perspectives on how to foster creativity through the current curriculum. The overall aims of this study were to explore science teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices in fostering creativity in science classrooms as well as to investigate the influences of sociocultural factors on teachers’ beliefs and practices in fostering creativity. The study also examined the consistency and inconsistency levels between teachers’ beliefs and practices. The study has a qualitative nature that stands on an interpretive worldview. The methodology uses eight case studies, each of which consisted of a male science teacher and one of his classes. Multiple methods were used, including semi-structured interviews (pre- and post-observational interviews), student focus groups, unstructured observations, participants’ drawings, and field notes. The analysis was based on thematic analysis model proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Thematic findings and case studies findings were drawn from the analysis of the data collected. In general, the thematic findings indicated that science teachers are able to define the meaning of creativity and its main aspects. Professed pedagogical beliefs enforce four teaching approaches to foster creativity in the science classroom: the teaching of thinking skills, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and practical investigation (experimentation). The teachers believe that these approaches could promote students’ creativity in science classroom when specific sociocultural factors facilitate the effectiveness of such approaches in terms of fostering creativity. Three interdependent categories represent these facilitating factors: (1) educational setting-related factors, (2) teacher-related factors, and (3) student-related factors. Differences and similarities appeared when these professed beliefs were compared to the applied classroom practices. The thematic analysis revealed several themes underlying the main categories. Extensive teacher-centred practices and modest student-centred practices were evident; more specifically, the observations revealed primarily teacher-centred approach inside the science classes. Meanwhile, student-centred approaches were modestly applied in comparison to teacher-centred activities. The teachers justified their practices in accordance with the sociocultural factors that mediate their beliefs and practices as well as the role of their goal orientation. The science teachers perceived the mediating factors as constraints that prevent them from applying their beliefs about fostering creativity in classroom practices. Multiple constraining factors emerged, and they were categorised into personal, external, and interpersonal constraints. Concerning the case study findings, consistencies and inconsistencies were identified using a cut-off point as an analytic technique to classify teachers’ beliefs and practices into traditional (non-creativity fostering), mixed, or progressive (creativity fostering). The case study findings identified four consistency and inconsistency levels characterizing teachers’ beliefs and practices: traditional (consistent level), mainly traditional (inconsistent level), mixed (consistent level), and mainly progressive (inconsistent level). Each level was represented by an exemplary case study. The exemplary case studies revealed that sociocultural contexts influence teacher’s belief-practice relationship with respect to fostering students’ creativity in science classroom. Further, the thematic and case study findings were discussed in relation to the existing body of knowledge, followed by an illustration of significant conclusions, including some implications, contributions, limitations, and future suggestions.