Investigating Teachers’ Personal Visions and Beliefs: Implications for Quality in Language Teacher Education
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Date
2009-06
Authors
Adeosun, A.O
Maduekwe, A.N
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Swaziland
Abstract
Visions and beliefs are assumed to always shape his/her perception, attitude, focus and performance. The growing influence of constructivism in teacher education and the increase in the amount of research into teacher cognition has put the notion of beliefs and vision into central focus such that it is fast becoming a dominant paradigm in ESL (Brunner 1996). Teachers should be aware of their vision and belief systems, reflect on them and determine the extent to which their actions are in keeping with existing beliefs about language learning and teaching. This study, therefore, attempts to establish the extent to which the beliefs of in-service teachers of English Language influence their training input, pedagogical decisions and quality of teaching practice. The study made use of an initial Likert-scale questionnaire containing teachers’ belief statements about self, language, teaching and learning processes, their students and their professional training. With a stratified randomized sampling technique, a survey was conducted on three hundred respondents selected from different levels of English Education Sandwich Students. Interview schedules, as well as classroom observation, were also employed to poll the respondents’ beliefs and visions and how these might be currently reflected in their academic work, readings and impact on their performances and quality of teaching output. Data gathered were analyzed using different but intersecting statistical methods. Results showed that some existing beliefs change in the course of training and practice while some beliefs do not change but are strengthened.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
teacher cognition, teacher's vision, teacher education, language teaching, teacher belief systems
Citation
Adeosun, A.O. & Maduekwe, A.N. (2009). Investigating teachers’ personal visions & beliefs: Implications for quality in language teacher education. LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research. Vol. 6(1) June 2009. Swaziland: University of Swaziland; pp.76-89. DOI: 10.4314/lwati.v6i1.46505