Exploring teachers’ beliefs and
practices: Why? What? How?
Roger Barnard
University of Waikato, New Zealand
rbarnard@waikato.ac.nz
Teaching and learning
• Teaching is more than the transmission of
knowledge.
• The teacher is a manager of learning
• An effective teacher is “someone who can live with
the paradox of knowing that teaching does not cause
learning all the while knowing that to be successful,
one must act as if it does” (Larsen-Freeman &
Anderson, 2011, page 231).
Terminology: Cognition
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Cognition is a broad term, and may comprise:
Assumptions
Perceptions
Attitudes
Beliefs
Knowledge
Emotions
• “When I use a word, it means precisely what I mean it to
mean, neither more nor less” (Humpty Dumpty, in Lewis
Carroll’s Through the Looking class)
Teachers’ beliefs: Why?
(Borg, 2006)
• Teachers are the executive decision-makers of the
curriculum.
• They ‘realise’ the ‘intended’ curriculum (Fullan, 2007)
• Failure* to take into account what teachers believe and
do leads to curriculum breakdown
• * by policy-makers, curriculum designers, teacher developers,
inspectors. school principals, parents academics, ….
• What teachers believe influences what they do.
• But they do not always do what they believe.
• (Why not?)
Teachers’ beliefs: About what?
• A wide range of issues, including:
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The place of grammar in language teaching
The teaching of language skills (L,S,R,W)
New approaches/methods (e.g., Task-Based Learning)
The roles of teacher and/or learner
Relevant and/or ethical evaluation and assessment
The use of students’ first language
Any aspect of any of these issues is worthy of research
NOTE: It is important to have narrow research focus,
while acknowledging its inherent complexity.
The complexity of teachers’ beliefs
• Many interacting factors influence beliefs:
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Previous (language) learning experience
Professional development programmes
‘Experts’ – such as prominent authors
The imposition of authority
Previous and present teaching experience
Learners, colleagues, other s
‘Significant others’
Underlying value system
…….
The complexity of practice
• Teachers’ practices occur in specific contexts. Each
context is a dynamic and complex system:
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Physical
Temporal
Cognitive
Social
Cultural
“persons tend to actively select and manipulate the contexts in
which they work, whereas contexts in their turn shape the
person’s characteristics and abilities” (van Geert & Steenbeck, in
press, p.14, cited by Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2010, p.240)
Experimental research?
Experiments are not suitable to explore teachers’
beliefs and practices, because:
• The purpose of an experiment is to identify precise
cause-and-effect relationships between selected key
variables in order to generalise and predict behaviour.
• Experimenters cannot observe the underlying meaning
and intentions of the participants.
• Teaching and learning are meaningful.
• Teaching and learning is an inherently social activity.
• Teachers and learners have individual personalities.
• We cannot predict such complex interactions, and we
cannot generalise from specific contexts.
Exploratory research (ER)
• ER seeks to uncover the complexity of
particular contexts
• It needs to be
– Primarily qualitative and ecologically valid
– Focussed, but not reductionist
– Longitudinal, accounting for changing relationships
– Participatory and ethnographic
– Judiciously multi-method
Teachers’ beliefs: How?
(Barnard & Burns, forthcoming)
• A judicious selection of data collection methods,
such as:
• Elicitation
– questionnaire, interview, narrative frame
• Observation
– classroom observation
– observing decision-making (‘think aloud’)
• Reflection
– stimulated recall, reflective journal, focus group
Grounded theory
(See Charmaz, 2006)
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A theory seeks to describe and explain phenomena.
All research needs a theoretical orientation.
In exploratory research theory is ‘grounded’ in the data.
Data from multiple sources need to be carefully collated
and managed.
• The data are then subjected to ‘grounded analysis’ –
the constant comparison and contrast of data to find
emerging patterns.
• These patterns are then interpreted to provide rich,
plausible, contextualised explanations – e.g., for the
extent of con/divergence between beliefs and practice.
Some research questions
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How many research participants/contexts?
Are all ER investigations case studies?
If so, does this diminish their significance?
What is the role/status of the researcher?
Which data collection methods to use?
What language is to be used to collect data?
How to manage and analyse the data?
How to present plausible interpretations?
Questionnaire
(Brown, 2009)
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Purposes:
1. to elicit teachers’ attitudes (not beliefs)
2. to obtain background biodata of teachers
3. to recruit participants for other phases
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How to administer? (post? web? email? by hand?)
How many (open and/or closed?) items?
Necessity of piloting (with whom?)
Validity and reliability?
Interview
(Block, 2000)
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Purposes:
1. to probe attitudes in more depth -> beliefs
2. to uncover new issues
3. to establish rapport with participants
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How structured should the interview be?
How long should the interview last?
How many interviews? When?
The researcher/interviewee relationship?
Narrative frame
(Barkhuizen & Wette, 2008)
• Purposes:
• Participants tell stories based on their
experiences in a form of guided composition
(sentence starters and linkers)
• Participants free to relate key events
• How much structure to put in the frame?
• Which language?
• Truth and honesty?
Narrative frame: a simplified example
• A successful lesson I recently
taught was ………….It was successful
because I ……………. , and the
students …………. One problem that
arose was ……………, and I dealt with
it by ………….. On reflection, I
think that ………, and the next time
I teach this sort of lesson, I
will…….
Classroom observation
(Cowie, 2009)
• Purposes:
• 1. To observe natural classroom interaction,
focusing on the key issue/s of the research
• 2. To identify the extent of con/divergence
between beliefs and practice
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Role of the observer?
Ethical issues? (Whose ‘rules’ apply?)
How to record classroom data?
How to transcribe (which?) key episodes?
Think Aloud
(Leow & Morgan-Short, 2004)
• Purposes:
• 1. To “observe” participants’ decision-making
– for example
– planning a lesson, selecting a textbook, marking
written work, preparing tests, discussing
groupwork
• 2. To identify the extent of convergence and
divergence between beliefs and practices.
• 3. to capture thinking processes as they occur
– “cognition in flight” (Vygotsky)
Think aloud (TA): Issues
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How natural is ‘thinking aloud’?
How closely does TA reflect actual thought?
Should the researcher be present or absent?
Who is being addressed? (private speech?)
How to record / transcribe TA data?
Stimulated recall sessions
(Gass & Mackey, 2000)
• Purposes:
• 1. participants explain the intentions behind their
classroom actions
• 2. Participants rationalise any gaps between
beliefs and actions
• How soon after the event?
• How to stimulate recall? (audio/video recordings,
or transcript data, or field notes)
• Differentiating present from past interpretation?
• Delicacy of researcher’s language?
Reflective journal
(Richards & Ho 1993)
• Purpose:
• To enable the participant to reflect at leisure
on their experiences, learning and feelings.
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Logs, journals, or diaries?
Written or oral reflections?
Individual or paired reflection?
Who is the intended reader?
Focus group
(Ho, 2006)
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Purposes:
1. Participants share their experiences
2. Participants co-construct possible solutions
3. To uncover new issues and perspectives
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How many in a group?
Effect of power relations etc?
Researcher present or absent?
How to record the session?
References
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Barkhuizen, G., & Wette, R. (2008). Narrative frames for investigating the
experiences of language teachers. System 36(3), 372-387.
Barnard, R. & Burns, A. (forthcoming). Language teacher cognition and
practice: International case studies to illuminate methodological issues.
Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
Block, D. (2000). Problematising interview data: Voices in the mind’s
machine? TESOL Quarterly, 34(4), 757-763.
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and
practice. London, England: Continuum.
Brown, J. D. (2009) Open-response items in questionnaires. In J. Heigham
& R. A. Croker (Eds.). Qualitative research in applied linguistics: A practical
introduction (pp.200-219). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide
through Qualitative Analysis. London, England: SAGE
References
• Cowie, N. (2009) Observation. In J. Heigham & R. A. Croker (Eds.),
Qualitative research in applied linguistics: A practical introduction
(pp. 165-181). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Gass, S. M., & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in
second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
• Ho, D. (2006). The focus group interview: Rising to the challenge in
qualitative research methodology. Australian Review of Applied
Linguistics, 29(1), 1-19.
• Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
• Leow, R. P., & Morgan-Short, K., (2004). To think aloud or not to
think aloud: The issue of reactivity in SLA research methodology.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 35-57.
• Richards, J.C., & Ho, B. (1992) Reflective thinking through teacher
journal writing: Myths and realities. Perspectives 5(2).