A Study On EFL Teacher Education Students' Epistemological Beliefs And Their Metaphorical Conceptions Of Teaching And Learning

In interactions with students, a teacher's decisions will influence his/her instructional design, teaching arrangements and other teaching behaviors. This decision-making process is meta-cognitive in nature, which is probably affected by classroom contexts, teachers' own epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of teaching and learning. During many years of learning experience as a student, EFL teacher education students have unconsciously formed their own epistemological beliefs and corresponding conceptions of teaching and learning. These beliefs and conceptions are relatively stable and not easily to be changed, which would be brought into teacher education courses, teaching practices even their future work. Researches have shown that it is difficult to bring a satisfactory change in their beliefs, solely relying on teaching methodology inculcation, unless their prior beliefs are substantially challenged.This paper attempts to examine EFL teacher education students'epistemological beliefs and their metaphorical conceptions of teaching and learning through questionnaire and interview. EFL teacher education students in their fourth year from one normal university in Jiangsu Province participated in this study. By the time of the study, the participants have taken English teaching methodology courses and have finished a two-month field placement. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part aims to investigate EFL teacher education students'epistemological beliefs in Chinese context and educational background; the second part explores the most representative metaphorical images of teachers, students and English classroom to the participants, which further reflects their conceptions of teaching and learning.Results show that a majority part of the EFL teacher education students hold sophisticated epistemological beliefs and are more inclined to adopt constructivism, in which their epistemological beliefs are consistent with conceptions of teaching and learning. However, some inconsistent cases are also found. Through case interviews, the possible reasons for inconsistency are traced and discussed.This paper further provides some implications for teacher education on the basis of the results gained through the questionnaire, e.g., helping teacher education students to learn teaching reflection in order to make their implicit beliefs explicit for correspondent modification. In addition, building a good teaching environment which is consistent with constructivism is rather important.