A Case Study On The Influence Of Teaching Practice On High School English Student Teachers’ Beliefs

In the past 20 years,there has been a surge of interest in the study of teacher beliefs.The key to this increase in research is the recognition that teachers are active decisionmakers who play a central role in classroom activities and whose behaviour is guided by teacher beliefs.Understanding teachers’ beliefs are the core of understanding the teaching process and can help teachers understand themselves better.At present,the studies on teacher beliefs mainly focus on in-service teachers,and most of them are quantitative research conducted by questionnaire surveys.However,teacher beliefs are implicit and ineffable,and what a teacher answer is not necessarily true.Based on this,this study adopts a case study to investigate the teacher beliefs of two English student teachers in senior high school.Interviews,practice journals,and classroom observation are used to explore the changes in teacher beliefs during the teaching practice.The following questions are mainly answered in this study:(1)What are the teacher beliefs of the two English student teachers before conducting their teaching practices?(2)Will their teacher beliefs change after the practice? If any,how do the different dimensions of teacher beliefs change?(3)What factors account for changes?At first,the study divides teacher beliefs into five dimensions:(1)belief about being a teacher;(2)belief about English;(3)belief about student learning;(4)belief about English teaching;(5)belief about classroom management,and discusses the two English student teachers’ teacher beliefs before they participated in teaching practice.A large amount of original data through their reflective journals,interviews,and classroom observations,are obtained during their practice.Through data analysis,five changes in their teacher beliefs are found :(1)belief transformation,(2)new belief generation,(3)belief enhancement,(4)belief weakening,and(5)belief unchanged.Under the guidance of the Teacher-learning Social Constructive Model and Teacher Cognition,the author finds five key factors that lead to the changes: personal reflection;student feedback;the words and deeds of secondary school mentors;classroom practice;and teacher education.Based on the results,the author proposes several suggestions.English student teachers should fully understand themselves and explore their own teaching characteristics before the practice.During the practice,they should often contact students and keep independent thinking when encountering difficulties.While the secondary school mentors should actively provide teaching opportunities for student teachers,and offer teaching suggestions and feedback.At the same time,they should also build a bridge of communication between the student teachers and secondary school students,and help the student teachers establish their prestige as teachers.What’s more,it would be better if university administrators could provide more practical teaching opportunities for student teachers to help them really understand secondary school students.By analyzing the change of teacher beliefs of two English student teachers practicing in high school,this study aims to help them identify their growth during the practice,so as to constantly reflect on themselves and promote the development of English teaching in secondary school.