Do Teachers Really Want To Change Their Beliefs Related To Education?

Abstract

Teachers’ beliefs represented a special interest, for both educational and psychological researches. The aim of educational domain were aspects related to methods, evaluation, urban-rural schools, experience, the level of teaching (primary, secondary and high school), gender, the type of institution who offered program in teacher training, on the other hand psychological domain paid attention on personality traits, Locus of control, stress, burnout and maybe the most complex aspect, of belief change. The present article is a review of the ninth main models on belief change, proposed by researchers who have studied this domain. Teachers beliefs’ change represented a real interest concurrently with implementation students centred learning strategies and constructivist-oriented reforms. The main aspects that concern all factors involved in educational settings (teacher, administrators, and pupils) are teachers’ resistance to reforms, which hold them in a traditionalist position, and superficial belief change (assimilation), who does not affect the core beliefs of teaching only superficial beliefs.

Keywords: Teacherbeliefsbeliefs changeconstructivist teachingresistance

Introduction

Research in the field of teachers’ beliefs on education have drown specialists’ attention for over 60 years. At the beginning, they aimed at identifying the psychological constructs involved and associated beliefs as predictors and explaining elements of inter-individual differences between teachers (their practice in the classroom, their performances in the field and their expertise). Though they have written over 700 articles about teachers’ beliefs, one still cannot draw clear conclusions on the predictive potential of beliefs (Fives, & Buehl, 2012).

Teachers’ beliefs are a key concept because for understanding teaching it is important to understand their beliefs about their work (Nespor, 1987). Many of the future teachers attending training programmes within departments for teaching staff training and within departments of social sciences are naive regarding their teaching abilities and class management, showing an “unrealistic optimism” particularly as far as the tasks under their control are concerned (Weinstein, 1988; Tschannen-Moran Woolfolk, & Hoy, 1998).

The importance of studying in service and pre-service teachers’ beliefs was emphasised by Pajares (1992) who quoted Fenstermacher (1978, p. 307) who predicted that the “study of beliefs would become the focus for teacher effectiveness research” and Pintrich (1990) who suggested, “beliefs ultimately will prove the most valuable psychological construct to teacher education”.

Bandura (1997) also supported the importance of beliefs mentioning that the teachers, responsible in the educational environment for the organisation, structuring, social development and pupils’ learning experiences rely, in their work, on both explicit and implicit beliefs from class context to world context. Due to the complexity of teachers’ beliefs and, particularly, to their evaluation, Muis (2004) makes a very pertinent recommendation – the need for beliefs to be evaluated in context. At the same time, one should also take into account teachers’ personalities because beliefs are an extremely important component of one’s personality.

When teachers’ beliefs observe the national educational strategy, no matter the country, the progress is obvious in both teaching methods and student approach. The main issue arises when we need to change beliefs and when teachers oppose change because their beliefs hinder change (Thompson, 1984). One of the most complex methods that raised challenges was constructivism, a method that involves active involvement from students, while teachers have the responsibility of getting the students involved and of turning them from passive into active receivers (Skott, 2015).

Problem Statement

Improving teachers’ teaching methods has been a field of great interest for decision-makers in the educational system. In this respect, they are organising multiple courses of professional development meant to make teachers “abandon” traditional teaching methods and adopting modern ones, particularly constructivist ones. Some of these courses are fruitful, some others are not. What they do not always take into account is teachers’ motivation for attending such courses, their degree of involvement, and particularly the complex process of changing teachers’ beliefs regarding education. Through these courses, teachers can use new knowledge, abilities, skills and beliefs to improve the content of what they teach and the teaching approach (Desimone, 2009).

Thompson (1992, p. 140) mentioned that, “The phenomenon of teachers modifying new ideas to fit their existing schemas is not well understood. Yet, understanding why teachers do this instead of restructuring their current schemas is central to effecting change”. Since beliefs develop gradually and changing them needs time, Fullan (1991) claimed that change hurts and this makes teachers refuse it. The most difficult to change are core beliefs that are very strong and that are less permeable to rational critiques and changes compared to peripheral beliefs that are much easier to analyse and change (Turner & Chauvot, 1995; Mkomange et al., 2012).

Teachers’ resistance to change is a true issue for school principal because, no matter the efforts, school behaviours and results are relatively the same. Pre-existing beliefs about prevent teachers from making changes (Franke et al., 1998). Pintrich (1999) claimed that adopting more complex epistemological beliefs (provided mainly by constructivist methods) determine conceptual changes (Gill, Ashton & Algina, 2004). Mason’s study (2002) claimed that systematic processing is the mechanism through which general epistemological beliefs influence changes related to discipline.

Interventions for the changing of beliefs are a major goal in initial teacher education because reflection after practice classes has a positive effect on the changing of beliefs (Tillema, 1997; 2000). Likewise, in generating models for the changing of teachers’ beliefs, Opfer, Pedder & Lavicza (2011) suggested a unitary approach (the relation between beliefs, practice and students’ change), not a sequential one.

Research Questions

1. What types of models of belief changing are presented in the research in the field? To answer this question, we identified the studies that present such models (both general and teacher-specific ones).

2. What are the strengths and the weaknesses of the models identified? To answer this question, we have analysed the design and the description of the models to identify the necessary data.

Purpose of the Study

The goal of this article is to identify different models of changing beliefs and to critically analyse them. The research will help teachers and school principals wishing to implement constructivist-teaching methods to understand the difficulty of changing beliefs and resistance to change in some teachers.

Research Methods

This study relies on articles indexed in the databases PsycINFO, ERIC, Proquest Dissertation and Theses and Google Scholar. We have selected only articles in English. To carry out our research, we used the search phrases: “teacher beliefs change” OR “teachers change” OR “belief change” OR “conceptual change”. We have analysed the abstracts and, after removing the one irrelevant for our study, we considered eligible 23 abstracts. We obtained the full-text articles representing the ground for this review. The articles were identified between May and July 2016..

Findings

Changing teachers’ beliefs is a very difficult process and it should start ever since the training period within the departments of teaching staff training and of social sciences, where the future teachers come with previous experiences and certain beliefs regarding the subjects to teach to their students. This is a possible threat to the wish of getting involved in the difficult process of changing beliefs.

Changing teachers’ beliefs about education raised the interest of researchers about 50 years ago, the most representative study being that of Klein (1969). Numerous studies claim the difficulties associated with the idea of change (teachers do not change or they become recalcitrant) (Fullan, 1991; Duffy & Roehler, 1986). Morimoto (1973, p. 255) claimed that, “When change is advocated or demanded by another person, we feel threatened, defensive, and perhaps rushed”. The way in which school principals approach the topic of change marks the way the courses of personal and professional development for the teachers are organized. If one supports teachers’ autonomy and a working environment in agreement with critical debates on educational practice, there are chances for teachers’ beliefs to change (Richardson, 1998).

Ever since Rust’s study (1994) on pre-service teachers and debutant teachers they drew the conclusion that debutant teachers’ beliefs are strongly influenced by the demands of the school management of the school where they teach. It is a true challenge for teachers’ training programme administrators to determine changes of personal beliefs in teachers (Buchmann & Schwille, 1983).

Gregoire’s study (2003) analysed critically five models of the nine models below – the Model of Dissonance Theory, the Model of Conceptual Change, the Model of Dual Processes, the Model of Cognitive Restructuring of Knowledge, and the Cognitive-Affective Model of Conceptual Change.

Conclusion

The results of the study support the interest manifested in the last five decades in this very complex and delicate topic – changing teachers’ beliefs. If the first studies supported the idea that teachers do not change, recent studies claim the contrary by presenting different models of belief change. Each of the nine models of change support certain aspects considered important or necessary in changing: they test in most cases pre-service teachers, which is one of their weaknesses.

Presenting the nine types of changing teachers’ beliefs is an advantage for school principals and professional development course organisers who can choose, depending on the psychological profile of their teachers, the best-suited model or the model accepted and appreciated by the teachers.

After analysing the nine models of belief change, we recommend the development of a genuine model of changing teachers’ beliefs to be applied to in-service teachers to improve the weaknesses of the models presented in detail above. Other factors determining or mediating teachers’ belief change should be analysed to broaden the range of options for all the educational factors involved.

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