Teacher Epistemic Beliefs and their articulation to broader personal beliefs. An Empirical Exploration

Author(s):

Cecilia Mornata(presenting / submitting)Etienne Bourgeois

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 04 B, Considering Epistemology and Epistemic Beliefs

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-14

08:30-10:00

Room:

JK 31/239,1 FL., 25

Chair:

Dina Mehmedbegovic

Contribution

The study presented in this paper is part of a broader research project aiming at three objectives: 1) to explore the various dimensions and functions of high school teachers‘ cognitions and beliefs about learning and knowing; 2) their antecedents as related to both the teachers’ biographies and current work environment; and 3) the process through which these cognitions are gradually constructed over the teachers’ career. The study presented here concerns the first part of this project.

Teachers’ epistemic cognition deserves careful attention, in particular to the extent that they appear to play a crucial function in structuring and orienting actual teaching practices (Maggioni & Parkinson 2008; Brickhouse, 1990; Hashweh, 1996) and in influencing student beliefs about knowledge and learning (Maggioni, Riconoscente & Alexander, 2006; King & Kitchener, 2004). It can also be hypothesized that they may have some specific particularities in their content given the specificity of the teaching profession (teaching is an activity about learning and knowing) (Lyons, 1990). This particular profession may be likely to attract people with certain beliefs and cognitions about learning and knowing and engagement in this profession is in turn likely to shape these beliefs over time (Wandsworth, 2007). Being able to characterize teacher epistemic beliefs in their content and to see how they are articulated to the person’s broader system of personal beliefs and values is therefore a necessary preliminary step to further examination of their antecedent and consequences.

The literature on this issue is quite rich but also somewhat disparate, borrowing from both sociology and psychology of teaching and education (Hofer & Pintrich,1997 ; Schommer,1990 ;Hammer & Elby, 2002 ;Charlot, Bautier & Rochex, 2000; Dweck, 1999; Olafson & Schraw, 2006). A review of this literature led us to select 3 major dimensions:

v Epistemic beliefs stricto sensu, i.e., cognitions about what learning and knowing are, how they function and can be characterized as processes (Hofer & Pintrich,1997 ; Schommer,1990 )

v Epistemological world views (Olafson & Schraw, 2006)

v Personal beliefs about oneself, as a teacher, parent and student and personal beliefs about his own discipline and practice as a teacher

In this approach, the focus is primarily on the functions that knowing and learning fulfill in the teachers’ personal and professional life: how they are invested and valued in relation to teachers’ personal goals?

Method

Data collection. The study was based on individual semi-structured interviews conducted with the whole teaching staff of a small public high school in Geneva, Switzerland. 19 teachers in total were interviewed, ranging from 30 to 61 year-old, including 7 males and 12 females. In the first interview teachers were presented a set of pictures and asked to choose the one representing the most and the one representing the least « knowledge » in their eyes. They were subsequently asked to justify and comment their choice with a view to elicit what learning and knowing meant to them. The second interview took place three months later (in order to avoid any priming effect of the first one). Respondents were given a task in four steps that was meant to have teachers think and speak as freely as possible about the most significant learning experience in four life areas (personal, professional, schooling and continuing education). Data analysis. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through a classical content analysis method (using ©N*Vivo software) in reference to analytical categories derived from the four theoretical dimensions initially selected.

Expected Outcomes

Our first content analysis led to identifying three main of profiles: 1. Teachers for whom epistemic beliefs appear to be invested as a central component of their personal and professional self-concept a. They define themselves and the world through the subject-matters they teach and knowledge they have invested b. What they teach is associated with strong emotions c. Their beliefs about knowing and Learning cannot be dissociated from their other personal beliefs 2. Teachers for whom knowing and learning are instrumental means of achieving specific personal goals a. Knowing and learning appear to be clearly subordinated to personal goals b. Knowing and learning are not valued for their own sake, but only as means to achieve overarching personal goals 3. Teachers for whom knowing and learning are seen primarily as means of personal development a. They are invested as means to become a “better person” b. They are valued for their own sake, as crucial avenues to personal growth This part of the study allowed for a clarification of “epistemic beliefs” as the core construct of our broader research project. In particular, it shows the extent to which are deeply embedded in a broader beliefs and values system and cannot therefore be looked at as isolated from the latter.

References

Hofer & Pintrich,1997 ; Schommer,1990 ; Hofer, 2004; Schraw & Olafson, 2002; Olafson & Schraw, 2006; Hammer & Elby, 2002 ; Charlot, 1997, 2003, 2006; Charlot, Bautier & Rochex, 2000; Dweck, 1999; Maggioni & Parkinson 2008; Brickhouse, 1990; Hashweh, 1996;Maggioni, Riconoscente & Alexander, 2006; King & Kitchener, 2004; Louca, Elby, Hammer & Kagey, 2004; Rading, 2002;Lyons, 1990;Wandsworth, 2007

Author Information

Cecilia Mornata (presenting / submitting)

Geneva University

Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of education

Genève 4

Etienne Bourgeois

Geneva University, Switzerland

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