This action research study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of a constructivist approach to the training of first-year Chinese student mathematics teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education where I am employed. A four-stage teaching model was designed, based on the learning theory of constructivism and taking into particular consideration the characteristics of Chinese learners: the maintenance of hierarchical and group harmony and high achievement motivation. In order to determine whether the application of this model in a methodology could alter the teaching beliefs of newly enrolled students, a two-phase procedure was employed. First-year students in each phase of the study were involved in solving a teaching problem. Through self-articulation, group- and class-discussions and self-reflection, the students were examined to determine any change in their beliefs about teaching mathematics. Prior beliefs about mathematics teaching, and beliefs held at the end of the methodology module were determined and compared in order to determine if new learning was in evidence. The creation of an authentic interactive learning environment to foster the kind of learning desired - a potentially safe, trusting and non-judgemental environment for free disclosure of students' opinions and feelings about mathematics teaching - was investigated. Data was generated by different quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings were cross-checked by a critical colleague and through my observation and reflections, and these were recorded as clearly, orderly, and accurately as possible. The first phase results were employed to inform and to improve the teaching of the same methodology module in the second phase. / Findings in the two phases were indicative of the creation of a genuine social constructivist learning environment in which student teachers enjoyed their learning. Student teachers in the second phase implementation of my study indicated an understanding of their role in a constructivist classroom - to construct their own theories of teaching mathematics, to assist their peers in knowledge construction and to learn to learn. Student teachers in the two cohorts were found to hold entrenched constructivist beliefs about teaching mathematics. They agreed that the teacher's role was a facilitator of learning and that persistent questioning could alter knowledge about mathematics. However, at the conclusion of the module, the Phase I students seemed to re-adopt traditional approaches to teaching, whereas the Phase II students exhibited two different perspectives - an indication of the instability of their teaching beliefs. The Phase II student teachers, nevertheless, showed that they became more aware of sequencing the various interactive activities for their pupils in secondary schools. In the actual teaching, they professed their inability to realise their teaching ideals because of their inexperience in teaching and of the unexpected situations in the school settings. The present research study adds to the paucity of literature in two areas. First, the employment of a constructivist approach in the preparation of teachers of junior secondary mathematics (for pupils of age between twelve and fifteen), especially in the training of Chinese student mathematics teachers. / Second, the study of a higher education lecturer conducting research to improve his/her own practice. Undeniably, further research on models to change student teachers' prior knowledge (about mathematics, about the nature of mathematics, and about the teaching and learning of mathematics), on factors affecting the instability of beliefs, and on models to facilitate continuous development of the teaching professionals are necessary if not exigent.

The purpose of this research was to understand the relationship between urban elementary teachers’ beliefs about diversity and their selection of literacy material for instructional practices in their classrooms. Currently, the teacher population is essentially homogenous, consisting of a majority of middle-class White females, while the student population is growing more diverse. Teachers’ instructional decisions tend to reflect their own cultural background and not the cultural background of the diverse student population. This study examined urban teachers’ personal and professional beliefs about diversity and found that gender was a factor in the teachers’ diversity scores. The review of children’s literature listed by the teachers further revealed that there was a lack of representation of characters of color in the teachers’ classrooms. Finally, teachers that scored high on the diversity scale had more multicultural literature available in their classrooms.

According to Li¡¦s (1992) study, the majority of high school students in Taiwan consider English writing their most taxing subject. After ten years, it seems still a difficult task for most of them, which is shown by the results from CEEC in 2001¡Xthe percentage of examinees who have scored higher than 12 points in writing is below 8%. This undesirable fact causes trouble and frustration not only to students but also to teachers. After a literature review of three dimensions¡Xresearch on English composition, empirical studies in Taiwan, and English teachers¡¦ beliefs and their pedagogical practices, the researcher adopted a qualitative methodology to do the research. The methodology is composed of an interview and a questionnaire. In this study, it is concluded that writing teachers¡¦ prior learning experiences had an influence on their current teaching practices. What¡¦s more, as for the explanation of why writing instructors have adopted these different methods, there are many possible reasons to give, such as time limit, students¡¦ numbers or a test-oriented trend in education. Teachers¡¦ beliefs and practices may also differ significantly due to their students¡¦ different backgrounds and needs. Moreover, the difficulties that teachers face are indeed serious problems the authorities concerned have to fix and some relevant suggestions should be proposed. Last but not least, the results of this study have shown some of teachers¡¦ beliefs about their writing instruction, including the opinions on principles of compiling writing materials and the teaching points they stress. Therefore, the relevant authorities and other researchers can refer to these results in this study when they implement language education reforms or conduct related studies. It is hoped that such a study would help people have a thorough comprehension of senior high school writing instructors¡¦ beliefs and draw much more attention to the importance of their needs, and difficulties.

Teacher attrition, particularly of beginning teachers, is concerning. Extensive research has been conducted on teacher attrition and teacher characteristics; however, less research exists on teacher retention and related teacher belief systems. This study examined the beliefs of a particular subset of teachers - teachers who have stayed in the profession in their first 3-5 years (N = 67). It explored if and how initial and current beliefs about students buffer the challenges teachers face in their entry years in the profession, if these beliefs change across time, and if these beliefs vary across grade level and school-level socioeconomic setting (SES). This study also examined a subset of teachers (n = 21) to explore how preservice teacher and classroom observation data can inform teachers’ beliefs about student learning in their first years of teaching. Results indicated that teachers’ beliefs about students become more integrated across time and demonstrate growth in expertise in teachers’ beliefs about students. Also, teachers held more positive perceptions of students over time in addition to a greater emphasis on the importance of preparation, completion, trying another way when you struggle, finishing strong, and having a plan when you are done. Grade level differences in beliefs existed in the first year, but disappeared across time. Further, no significant differences in beliefs about students across school-level SES were present as teachers entered the classroom and did not change as they adapted to these settings. The positive and more coherent beliefs that teachers held in their third, fourth, and fifth year of teaching (as compared to their first) suggest that these beliefs help them cope in their first five years in the profession.

In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

Across international boundaries, linguistic and cultural diversity among pupils present teachers with pedagogic challenges. Research on teachers’ perceptions (e.g. Pajares, 1992; Woods, 1996; Farrell, 2005) suggests that the beliefs that teachers hold impact significantly on their classroom practices. This study adds to the existing body of international literature on teacher beliefs and literacy practices by exploring teachers’ perceptions about the reading literacy needs of EAL pupils and how these were met in Scottish secondary mainstream classroom contexts. In Scotland, policy specifies a Framework for Inclusion where pupils learning English as an additional language (hereafter EAL) are placed in mainstream classrooms. Schools are encouraged to play a key role in making sure that the needs of such pupils are addressed in an effort to raise achievement. A sociocultural theoretical lens was used to examine the shared and divergent beliefs and reading literacy practices of sixteen mainstream English teachers; five EAL teachers; and five head/depute head teachers across three local authorities. Participants’ responses communicated an undifferentiated understanding of the distinctive reading literacy needs of EAL pupils. The majority of teachers foregrounded reading as a set of universal skills that emphasised a knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Ill-fitting policies and teachers’ experiences within the varying school contexts appeared to mediate how EAL pupils’ needs were constructed. Findings concerning the beliefs and practices of these teachers revealed that there was a lack of available ways of thinking about how to meet the reading literacy needs of EAL pupils effectively; such a lack impacted on the quality and number of learning opportunities EAL pupils had as they faced the reading literacy demands of mainstream classrooms. Teachers also highlighted their uncertainty about how to meet the reading literacy needs of such pupils effectively and this seemed to impact on how they constructed their identities as teachers within linguistically and culturally diverse classroom settings. In contrast, an overview of classroom literacy practices revealed that teachers enacted confident identities as they operated out of a secure knowledge base for developing reading literacy in monolingual English speaking classrooms. The study concludes with a discussion of the limitations related to the research design, and outlines the implications of the findings for policy, classroom literacy practices, and teachers’ professional development opportunities. It is argued that Scottish schools are no longer monolingual, monocultural environments, but rather cross-cultural sites. It is recommended that policy needs to reconceptualise and broaden how second language development is framed within its documents. It is also suggested that secondary classroom contexts address the importance of multidimensional critical literacy practices as a way to challenge the dominant undifferentiated constructions that permeate teachers’ beliefs about the development of reading literacy for pupils learning EAL. Such changes would position EAL pupils as legitimate participants in classroom literacy practices. The thesis concludes with a consideration of teacher identity and emphasises the need of ITE providers to provide a continuum of provision for pre-service and in-service teachers to enable them to develop the necessary knowledge and practices that would support the growing numbers of pupils learning EAL.

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.

Thesis (M.ED. (Mathematics Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / This study investigated Mathematics teachers’ beliefs about the nature of Mathematics and their impact on classroom practices. It was conducted in a public semi-urban school in the Capricorn District-Limpopo Province. It was a case study targeting two FET teachers with teaching experiences of 15 years or more. The central research questions addressed in this study are, namely: What are Mathematics teachers’ beliefs about the nature of Mathematics? And, what is the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their classroom practices? Data were collected through pre-observation interviews, classroom observation and through post observation interviews. Pre-observation interviews were conducted once before the participants were observed. I was a complete observer during my colleagues’ lessons. Interviews and observations data were analysed using categorisation and interpretation of data in terms of common themes and synthesis into an overall portrait of the case. Each case study teacher’s data were analysed individually (that is within-case analysis) first and thereafter cross-case analysis was done in order to compare the two case studies.

This research aimed to explore the current status of junior high school teachers¡¦ adopting interactive whiteboards (hereafter ¡§IWB¡¨) in teaching, and further investigate the teachers¡¦ beliefs and intention to use of IWBs. The research used survey research methodology to examine the Kaohsiung municipal junior high school teachers who had participated IWB teaching courses. There were 238 samples, and the research tool was the questionnaire ¡§Teachers¡¦ Teaching Beliefs and Intention to Use of Interactive Whiteboards.¡¨ In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to those who had expressed their willingness to have interviews in the questionnaires in order to supplement the lack of the questionnaire function. Data of the questionnaire sheets were statistically analyzed by SPSS 14.0 for Windows, and the analytical methods included descriptive statistics, average difference analysis, analysis of variances, and other related analytical methods. Qualitative interview data were inductively organized and analyzed. The findings of the research are as follows: 1.About 65% of Kaohsiung municipal junior high school teachers have ever used IWBs. The reason for using IWBs was mainly to increase students¡¦ learning motives. The major problem the teachers faced was that they were unable to find IWB-equipped classrooms. The assistance the teachers hoped to receive was to have an IWB teaching database constructed. 2.The Kaohsiung municipal junior high school teachers¡¦ IWB teaching beliefs were positive, as they generally believed that IWBs were an effective teaching tool integrated with multi-media resources. Thus, IWB teaching could not only trigger students¡¦ attention and learning motives but also promote their learning effects. 3.The Kaohsiung municipal junior high school teachers¡¦ intention to use of IWBs was positive. In general, the teachers believed that it would boost the teachers¡¦ intention to use of the IWB teaching if the teaching material was appropriate, equipment sufficient, or recommendations from other teachers. Some teachers expressed their intention to use of the IWB teaching in the future. 4.The total scale on the teachers¡¦ teaching beliefs showed a better outcome on the teachers with administrative work and those who had the IWB teaching experience; for evaluation level, it indicated better for those who had the IWB teaching experience; for expectation level, it signified better for the spontaneously-learning teachers and those who had the IWB teaching experience; for skill level, it represented better for male teachers, aged 31 to 40, with administrative work and those who had participated more frequently in IWB learning courses. There was no significant difference in cognition and feeling levels. 5.The total scale on the teachers¡¦ intention to use showed a better outcome on the teachers with administrative work and those who had the IWB teaching experience; for decision level, it indicated better for the teachers with administrative work, those who had participated more frequently in IWB learning courses, those who were spontaneous learners, and those who had the IWB teaching experience; for intention level, there was no significant difference. 6.The total scales of the teaching beliefs and of the intention to use showed a remarkable moderate positive correlation.