A Case Study Of Teacher Beliefs And Classroom Performance In Integrated Skills Of English Course

Since 1980 s, with more recognition of the complexity of teaching and profound development of studies in the area of cognition, researchers in western countries have shifted their focus from studying teachers’ outward behaviors to the study of the combination of teachers’ thinking and their behaviors. In this shift, research on teacher beliefs is what many scholars concerned about. These scholars abroad hold that teacher beliefs are closely connected with teaching behaviors, and that the formation and development of teacher beliefs can improve teachers’ teaching practices and their teaching efficiency, which play a vital role in students’ learning.The present research is a case study of teacher beliefs and classroom performance in Integrated Skills of English Course. Through quantitative analysis, the major instruments are questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and students test. The subjects involved in this study are two teachers of ISEC, a professor with 13 years of teaching experiences and a lecturer with 3 years of teaching experiences, and fifty-six third-year English majors from two different classes. The present study intends to answer the following four questions:1) What teacher beliefs do the English teachers hold?2) What teaching behaviors do they have in the classroom of Integrated Skills of English Course?3) What is the correlation between teacher beliefs and teacher’s classroom performance?4) What’s the impact of teacher beliefs on students learning achievement?All the questions have been answered by quantitative analysis:1)Through questionnaires, the research finds that the two teachers’ beliefs are very different. Teacher A is an open-oriented teacher who doesn’t pay much attention to exams, and Teacher B is a conservative-oriented teacher that attaches importance to exams. Interviews with the two teachers later proved the results of the questionnaire. Teacher A believes the priority of ISEC class for third-year English majors is to develop their ability of critical thinking, other than the knowledge of language. However, Teacher B thinks that even the students are in their third-year, the most urgent task for them is still to learn the knowledge of English language well.2) The two teachers’ different beliefs lead to their different teaching behaviors. In Teacher A’s class, he almost spends all the time in teaching students how to appreciate essays and how to think critically, not only for learning, but also for every thing in their daily life and their growth in the college years. As for language learning, he asks the students to do it in their spare time, which he thinks the students already have the ability to do it by themselves. Teacher B’s class is totally different from that of Teacher A. His class focuses on teaching the language points of the text and explaining the exercises. He usually asks the students to do translations, which has something to do with his major, translation. He believes through translation, students can learn a lot, such as how to choose certain words in specific contexts and how to use language as a whole.3) Through classroom observation, with the comparison between the classroom observation outline and the teachers’ answers to the Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire, it can be concluded that the two teachers’ classroom teaching behaviors are basically consistent with their teacher beliefs. This is very important, because only when these two are consistent with each other can the teacher’s beliefs, through his performance, cast impact on their students.4) The most important part of the research is the impact teacher beliefs cast on the students. The result is obtained through students achievement test and the interviews with students. Firstly, the test results show that test results and teacher beliefs are correlated negatively, namely, the more open-oriented the teacher beliefs are, the worse the students test results are. Secondly, the interviews with students show that teacher beliefs and students’ ability of critical thinking are correlated positively, namely, the more open-oriented the teacher beliefs are, the better the students’ ability of critical thinking is. In the present study, Teacher A’s students do better in critical thinking, while Teacher B’s students do better in the test.5) Comparing the two types of students, as for now, Teacher B’s students do better in English learning, and they will get better results of examinations held by the school. Their well-learned English is mostly the result of the teacher’s supervision. They may form good habits of learning but relatively limited thinking. Teacher A’s students do better in critical thinking, their ability maybe cannot be reflected in the traditional examinations, however, in the long run, their development may be better than that of Teacher A’ students, because they have the ability of logically analyzing every thing they meet and can soon understand its benefits and drawbacks.The pedagogical implications, limitations of the present study and suggestions for the further study are also elaborated in the thesis.