| Teacher's beliefs have been focused on in the domain of teacher education for a long time. Beliefs are found to be far more influential than knowledge in determining how individuals organize and define tasks and problems, and were better predictors of how teachers behaved in the classroom (Williams & Burden,2000). As the manager of teaching activities, a teacher's approach to teach and manage student will be strongly influenced by his or her teacher's beliefs (Zhao,2004).In 2009, Chinese normal universities and colleges started the enrollment of full-time Master of Education. As one of the professional master degrees, it highlighted educational practices. Students pursuing the master degree have to take part in the required educational probation and educational practicum. The study focused on the novel group of postgraduates, researching the changes of teacher's beliefs of two Master of Education students of English Education, who are from a same normal university in China.The data of the study are collected from six interviews made with two participants (three for each), and the reflective journals written by them in the period of educational probation.Based on the framework from previous studies, data analysis of the interviews and of their journals, the study revealed six dimensions of teacher beliefs:(1) beliefs about being a teacher; (2)beliefs about teacher's ethics; (3) beliefs about the language of English; (4) beliefs about learning English; (5) beliefs about teaching English including beliefs about (D"to teach what" and (2) "how to teach"; and (6) belief about the relationship between teachers and students including beliefs about①knowing students,②loving students,③helping students,④criticizing students and⑤managing students.In addition, five sorts of changes were identified:(1) belief reformation, (2) generation of new belief, (3) belief enhancement, (4) belief weakening, and (5) null belief change.The study finds that the changes of teacher's beliefs of the participants were influenced by the events they saw, heard of and experienced in probation school, and their school advisor, and teaching practices outside of probation school, and the pressure they had to be faced with as a human being in the society.It is the result of the "game" involving their original beliefs in the six dimensions and the external influences that leads to the changes of the student teacher's beliefs in educational probation, and the judgment on the result is due to his/her reflections on his/her teacher's beliefs.The researcher hoped that a dynamic system that can record the changes of student teachers' TB and adjust according to them should be established in educational practices and student teachers' reflections should be encouraged. What is more, specific educational program should be designed for different student teachers who are with or without teaching experiences. |
