Changes in teachers’ personal epistemology on a formal in-service training course

Abstract

Teachers’ personal epistemological beliefs, formed from earlier experiences, are credited with influencing classroom teaching, although the extent of the relationship between beliefs and practice is debated. This longitudinal study researches the epistemological beliefs of four novice English language teachers during a year-long in-service course, and six months beyond. The analytical framework adopts an interpretative approach within a case-study to explore informants’ beliefs about knowledge, teaching and learning, and professional learning. Beliefs, determined through hermeneutic dialogue, are compared to practice determined empirically through classroom observation. Using Schommer’s 1990 theoretical framework beliefs are categorized under five factors and twelve subsets, distinguishing complex from naïve beliefs, with complex beliefs reflecting constructivist practice targeted on the course. Nine pathways reveal distinct patterns of change in implicit, professed, and enacted epistemological beliefs in relation to classroom practice during the study. The level of sophistication of epistemological beliefs played a major role in whether targeted practices were assimilated easily into classroom practice, or accommodated more slowly, and whether they were sustained beyond the in-service course. Exploring situated cognition within the workplace, part of the analytical framework, showed that some gains made through in-service learning were reversed in response to contextual factors. Results evidence a connection between epistemological beliefs and classroom enactment, with the implication that understanding and following teachers’ epistemological beliefs can enhance in-service teacher education outcomes. The findings suggest that in-service teacher educators and workplace leaders develop common policies to strengthen and sustain gains in professional learning and targeted classroom practice.