Attention to the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. The difficulty in studying teachers’ beliefs has been caused by definitional problems, poor conceptualizations, and differing understandings of beliefs and belief structures. This article examines the meaning prominent researchers give to beliefs and how this meaning differs from that of knowledge, provides a definition of belief consistent with the best work in this area, explores the nature of belief structures as outlined by key researchers, and offers a synthesis of findings about the nature of beliefs. The article argues that teachers’ beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry but that this will require clear conceptualizations, careful examination of key assumptions, consistent understandings and adherence to precise meanings, and proper assessment and investigation of spec...

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Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning Up a Messy Construct:

Although the conditions for successful technology integration finally appear to be in place, including ready access to technology, increased training for teachers, and a favorable policy environment, high-level technology use is still surprisingly low. This suggests that additional barriers, specifically related to teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, may be at work. Previous researchers have noted the influence of teachers’ beliefs on classroom instruction specifically in math, reading, and science, yet little research has been done to establish a similar link to teachers’ classroom uses of technology. In this article, I argue for the importance of such research and present a conceptual overview of teacher pedagogical beliefs as a vital first step. After defining and describing the nature of teacher beliefs, including how they are likely to impact teachers’ classroom practice, I describe important implications for teacher professional development and offer suggestions for future research.

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Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration?.

This paper reviews a selection of research from the field of foreign and second language teaching into what is referred to here as teacher cognition – what teachers think, know, and believe and the relationships of these mental constructs to what teachers do in the language teaching classroom. Within a framework suggested by more general mainstream educational research on teacher cognition, language teacher cognition is here discussed with reference to three main themes: (1) cognition and prior language learning experience, (2) cognition and teacher education, and (3) cognition and classroom practice. In addition, the findings of studies into two specific curricular areas in language teaching which have been examined by teacher cognition – grammar teaching and literacy – are discussed. This review indicates that, while the study of teacher cognition has established itself on the research agenda in the field of language teaching and provided valuable insight into the mental lives of language teachers, a clear sense of unity is lacking in the work and there are several major issues in language teaching which have yet to be explored from the perspective of teacher cognition.

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Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do

Although research studies in education show that use of technol- ogy can help student learning, its use is generally affected by certain barriers In this paper, we first identify the general barriers typically faced by K-12 schools, both in the United States as well as other countries, when integrating technology into the curriculum for instructional purposes, namely: (a) resources, (b) institution, (c) subject culture, (d) attitudes and beliefs, (e) knowledge and skills, and (f) assessment We then describe the strategies to overcome such barriers: (a) having a shared vision and technology integration plan, (b) overcoming the scarcity of resources, (c) changing attitudes and beliefs, (d) conducting professional development, and (e) reconsidering assessments Finally, we identify several current knowledge gaps pertaining to the barriers and strategies of technology integration, and offer pertinent recommendations for future research

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Integrating Technology into K-12 Teaching and Learning: Current Knowledge Gaps and Recommendations for Future Research

Despite increases in computer access and technology training, technology is not being used to support the kinds of instruction believed to be most powerful. In this paper, we examine technology integration through the lens of the teacher as an agent of change: What are the necessary characteristics, or qualities, that enable teachers to leverage technology resources as meaningful pedagogical tools? To answer this question, we discuss the literature related to four variables of teacher change: knowledge, self-efficacy, pedagogical beliefs, and subject and school culture. Specifically, we propose that teachers’ mindsets must change to include the idea that “teaching is not effective without the appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICT) resources to facilitate student learning.” Implications are discussed in terms of both teacher education and professional development programs. (Keywords: teacher change, teacher knowledge, teacher beliefs, technology integration)

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Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, and Culture Intersect

(1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies: Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 317-328.

The Role of Beliefs in the Practice of Teaching.

Drawing on material from an ethnographic study, I examine transformations in the nature of public spaces for children, and the school's role in producing those spaces. Space is treated as a product of social practice, not simply a frame for it. I contend that, as young children are increasingly immobilized in urban landscapes, school field trips become critical occasions for introducing them to, and framing their participation in, public spaces. I focus primarily on a field trip to an art museum in a redeveloped downtown, and then look briefly at a different type of trip, illustrated by a visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

School field trips and the curriculum of public spaces

A framework for analyzing academic tasks is presented, based on task conceptions formulated in cognitive psychology and in research on classroom interaction, which distinguishes between teachers' and students' version of a task, and takes into account possible reinterpretations of tasks following evaluation. Using this framework, a detailed analysis of a single task in a high school English class is presented. The teacher's goals for the task, and the manner in which he turns these goals into a concrete work activity, are described first. The tasks actually performed by three students in response to this assignment are then analyzed and sources of disjunction are identified. Issues raised by the case study for the overall task framework are then addressed.

Academic Tasks in a High School English Class.

Bourdieu (1986) suggests that students' social skills andcultural orientations are forms of 'capital' that can be converted into other forms of capital, such as high school of college performance or educational credentials. The argument developed in this paper is that within educational institutions curricular structures create pressures and constraints on such conversions of capital, in particular, on conversions of social capital into academic capital. The focus will be two undergraduate programmes-physics and management-at a major research university in the US . I examine the interplay of students' academic and social experiences in the two programmes and show how the curricular structures create opportunities and pressures for particular kinds of social relations that, in turn, influencehow students perform the academic tasks embedded in the curricula.

Curriculum and conversions of capital in the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge

(1990). Grades and knowledge in undergraduate education. Journal of Curriculum Studies: Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 545-556.

Jan Nespor

Papers

The Role of Beliefs in the Practice of Teaching.

School field trips and the curriculum of public spaces

Academic Tasks in a High School English Class.

Curriculum and conversions of capital in the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge

Grades and Knowledge in Undergraduate Education.