The Impact of the Continuum of an Education Programme on Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs about English Language Education

Martina Siposova; Lucia Svabova

doi:10.17323/jle.2022.13288

Martina Siposova Comenius University in Bratislava https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0329-1363
Lucia Svabova University of Zilina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4722-4103

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2022.13288

Keywords: teachers’ beliefs, pre-service teachers, questionnaire, teacher education programme, effective English teacher

Abstract

Research background: Teachers’ beliefs play an important role in the way they teach and meet their students’ needs. Researching pre-established pre-service teachers’ beliefs gives evidence that they might impede pre-service teachers’ compliance with pre-service education.
Gap in knowledge and Purpose of the study: Many studies have produced contradictory findings in terms of prospective change in pre-established pre-service teachers’ beliefs caused by the impact of pre-service education study programmes. Therefore, this study addresses the gap by enriching this field with research findings reinforcing the potential impact of the study programme on changes in pre-service teachers’ beliefs on effective English language teaching and learning expressed across different years of the study programme.
Methods: The study uses the results of questionnaires completed by 99 randomly selected pre-service teachers enrolled in an English language teaching study programme provided by the Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. In addition, the study participants’ database was expanded using bootstrapping to enhance the results obtained by applying statistical methods.
Findings and Value added: The results showed statistically significant differences among different years of the study programme within the continuum of their English language teacher education thus indicating the potential impact of the programme. The impact of the study programme led to pre-service teachers’ raised awareness and some modifications in their pre-established beliefs based on the learnt and acquired knowledge and gained practical teaching experiences during the practicums in higher grades of the study. The findings suggest that teacher educators and policymakers should be aware of pre-service teachers’ beliefs when adopting new strategies for reconceptualising and/ or modifying language teacher education programmes.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abelson, R. P. (1979). Differences between belief and knowledge systems. Cognitive Science, 3(4), 355-366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0304_4

Agresti, A., & Franklin, C. (2007). Statistics: The art and science of learning from data (2nd ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall. https://www.pearson.com/content/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/us/en/higher-education/product.html.

Wheelan, C. (2014). Naked statistics - Stripping the dread from the data. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Altan, M. X. (2006). Beliefs about language learning of foreign language - Major university students. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 31(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2006v31n2.5

Altan, M. Z. (2012). Pre-service EFL teachers' beliefs about foreign language learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 35(4), 481-493. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2011.643399

Ballesteros, A. C. V., Moreno, I. O., & Delgado, L. D. F. (2020). Teaching is not always easy: Mexican pre-service English teachers' beliefs on teaching and learning. Journal of Language and Education, 6(3), 36-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2020.10116

Blume, C., Gerlach, D., Roters, B., & Schmidt, T. (2019). The ABCs of inclusive English teacher education: A quantitative and qualitative study examining the attitudes, beliefs and (reflective) competence of pre-service foreign language teachers. TESL-EJ, 22(4), 1-18.

Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444803001903

Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. Continuum. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802277076

Brookhart, S. M., & Freeman, D. J. (1992). Characteristics of entering teacher candidates. Review of Educational Research, 62(1), 37-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1170715

Cabaroglu, N., & Roberts, J. (2000). Development in student teachers' pre-existing beliefs during a 1-year PGCE programme. System, 28(3), 387-402. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(00)00019-1

Calderhead, J. (1996). Teachers: Beliefs and knowledge. In Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 709-725). Prentice Hall International.

Capan, S. A. (2014). Pre-service English as a foreign language teachers' belief development about grammar instruction. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(12). DOI: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v39n12.9

Debreli, E. (2012). Change in beliefs of pre-service teachers about teaching and learning English as a foreign language throughout an undergraduate pre-service teacher training program. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 367-373. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.124

Fang, Z. (1996). A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices. Educational Research, 38(1), 47-65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188960380104

Farrell, T. (2019a). ‘My training has failed me': Inconvenient truths about Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language - Electronic Journal, 22(4), 1-16.

Farrell, T. (2019b). Standing on the shoulders of giants: Interpreting reflective practice in TESOL. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 7(3), 1-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30466/ijltr.2019.120733

Farrell, T., & Yang, D. (2019). Exploring an EAP teacher's beliefs and practices in teaching L2 speaking: A case study. RELC Journal, 50(1), 104-117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688217730144

Florence, N. (2011). Immigrant teachers, American students: Cultural differences, cultural disconnections. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116306

Florio-Ruane, S., & Lensmire, T. J. (1990). Transforming future teachers' ideas about writing instruction. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 22(3), 277-289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027900220305

Gao, Y., & Cui, Y. (2022). English as a foreign language teachers' pedagogical beliefs about teacher roles and their agentic actions amid and after Covid-19: A case study. RELC Journal, 1-17. https://. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882221074110

Green, T. F. (1971). The activities of teaching. Mcgraw-Hill.

Grossman, P. L., Wilson, S. M., & Shulman, L. S. (2005). Teachers of substance: Subject matter knowledge for teaching. Profesorado, Revista de Currículum y Formación Del Profesorado, 9(2), 1-25.

Hubbard, P. (1983). A training course for TEFL. Oxford University Press.

Kakeru, A. (2012, May 6). The cultural basis of teaching English as an international language. The Cultural basis of teaching English as an international language. Khaliq's Private Blog. http://khaliqbashar.blogspot.com/2012/05/cultural-basis-of-teaching-english-as.html.

Kavanoz, S. (2016). Unveiling pre-service language teachers' conceptualizations of teachers of English through metaphors. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 4(10), 17-32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v4i10.1690

Kissau, S. P., Algozzine, B., & Yon, M. (2012). Similar but different: The beliefs of foreign language teachers. Foreign Language Annals, 45(4), 580-598. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2013.12001.x

Li, X. (2012). The role of teachers' beliefs in the language teaching-learning process. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(7), 1397-1402.

Lojova, G. (2009). Re-evaluating the role of theory in foreign language teacher education. In Aspekte der Fremdsprachenlinguistik in der Slowakei und in Ungarn (pp. 123-136). Eotvos-Lórand Universität.

Mattheoudakis, M. (2007). Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece: A longitudinal study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(8), 1272-1288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.06.001

McCrocklin, S. (2020).Comparing experiential approaches: Structured language learning experiences versus conversation partners for changing pre-service teacher beliefs.International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 8(1), 70-81.

McDevitt, B. (2004). Negotiating the syllabus: A win-win situation? ELT Journal, 58(1), 3-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/58.1.3

McDonough, S. H. (1981). Psychology in foreign language teaching. Allen & Unwin.

Nespor, J. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 317-328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027870190403

Nettle, E. B. (1998). Stability and change in the beliefs of student teachers during practice teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(2), 193-204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(97)00031-0

Nisbett, R. E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Prentice-Hall.

Numrich, C. (1996). On becoming a language teacher: Insights from diary studies. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 131-153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3587610

Oxford, R. (2003). Language learning styles and strategies: An overview. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 41, 359-366.

Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers' beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543062003307

Parkinson, M., Maggioni, L., Olafson, L., & Vander Veldt Brye, M. (2017). The potential of course intervention to change pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs. In Teachers' personal epistemologies: Evolving models for informing practice (Current perspectives on cognition, learning and instruction) (pp. 215-238). Information Age Publishing Inc.

Peacock, M. (2001). Pre-service ESL teachers' beliefs about second language learning: A longitudinal study. System, 29(2), 177-195. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(01)00010-0

Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions between teachers' grammar teaching beliefs and practices. System, 37(3), 380-390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.03.002

Porter, A. C., & Freeman, D. J. (1986). Professional orientations: An essential domain for teacher testing. The Journal of Negro Education, 55(3), 284-292. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2295099

Richardson, V. (1996). The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 102-119). Macmillan.

Robb, P. (2005). Culture in language learning and teaching. Cukurova University Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 73-84.

Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values: A theory of organisation and change. Jossey-Bass.

Sheridan, L. (2016). Examining changes in pre-service teachers' beliefs of pedagogy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3), 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2016v41n3.1

Simsek, M. R. (2020). The impact of service-learning on EFL teacher candidates' academic and personal development. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(1), 1-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.9.1.1

Siposova, M. (2019). Language teacher cognition in vocabulary teaching. Studies in Foreign Language Education, 11, 126-163.

Soleimani, N. (2020). ELT teachers' epistemological beliefs and dominant teaching style: A mixed method research. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 5, 12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-020-00094-y

Stern, H., & Heinrich. (1997). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford University Press.

Strandberg, M. (2013). Homework - is there a connection with classroom assessment? A review from Sweden. Educational Research, 55(4), 325-346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2013.844936

Strevens, P. (1985). Language learning and language teaching. Forum Lectures.

Svabova, L., Valaskova, K., Durana, P. & Kliestik, T. (2020). Dependency analysis between various profit measures and corporate total assets for visegrad group's business entities. Organizacija, 53(1), 80-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2020-0006

Sysoyev, P. V., & Donelson, L. R. (2002). Teaching cultural identity through modern language: Discourse as a marker of an individual's cultural identity. Journal of Eurasian Research, 2(1), 65-70.

Uysal, H. H., & Bardakci, M. (2014). Teacher beliefs and practices of grammar teaching: Focusing on meaning, form, or forms? South African Journal of Education, 34(1), Article 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/saje.v34i1

Verloop, N., Van Driel, J., & Meijer, P. (2001). Teacher knowledge and the knowledge base of teaching.International Journal of Educational Research, 35(5), 441-461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-0355(02)00003-4

Warton, P. M. (2001). The forgotten voices in homework: Views of students. Educational Psychologist, 36(3), 155-165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3603_2

Weinstein, C. S. (1988). Pre-service teachers' expectations about the first year of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 4(1), 31-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(88)90022-4

Weinstein, C. S. (1989). Teacher education students' preconceptions of teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 40(2), 53-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002248718904000210

Wilson, J., & Rhodes, J. (2010). Student perspectives on homework. Education, 131(2), 351-358.

Xu, J., & Yuan, R. (2003). Doing homework: Listening to students, ‘parents,' and teachers' voices in one urban middle school community. The School Community Journal, 13(2), 25-44.

Yüksel, İ. (2019). ELT pre-service teachers' conceptualization of teaching practice: A metaphor analysis of the dynamics of teaching practice.International Journal of Higher Education, 8(4), 254-265. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v8n4p254

Zhou, G., & Liu, X. (1997). Monograph of educational psychology. China Audit Press.