The effect of pre-service teachers’s epistemological beliefs on teaching approaches

Abstract

At the beginning of last century, the curriculum based on constructivist approach which is the essential of education reforms has become a foundation to solution seeking. It is obvious that the researches in literature could not provide the desired achievement. Only the existence of programs that are based on student centered approaches are not adequate for the qualified education. Teachers who implement these programs teaching approaches might be appropriate for student centered education perspective. Eventually teachers' teaching approaches affect students' learning styles and their learning process. There are various classifications in literature about teachers' learning and teaching approaches. The two most common classifications are constructivist and traditional approaches. Teachers' learning and teaching perceptiveness are affected by many variables. One of them is epistemological beliefs. Determining teachers' teaching perceptiveness and the epistemological beliefs contribute effective teacher education programs. The success of effort in educational reforms could be possible by pre-service teachers' and teachers' instruction that is based on contribution of epistemological beliefs and teaching approaches. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs on teaching approaches. A cross-sectional survey design was employed and data were collected from 990 pre-service teachers in Turkey. Structural equation analysis using Partial Least Squares was used for statistical analysis of the data. Major findings indicated that epistemological beliefs which depend on effort and ability to learn have significant impact on constructivist teaching. The belief reference to existence of an only true has significant effect on traditional teaching. The beliefs which depend on effort have significant negative impact on traditional learning-teaching approach. According to the results of this study, pre-service teachers’ believe that learning is based on existence of an only true and innate ability.