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Initial epistemological beliefs transformation in one teacher education classroom: Case study of four preservice teachers Madalina Tanase a, * , Jian Wang b a Department of Foundations and Secondary Education, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville FL 32224, USA b University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA article info Article history: Received 24 July 2009 Received in revised form 5 February 2010 Accepted 11 February 2010 Keywords: Epistemological beliefs Conceptual change Preservice teachers Teacher education abstract Education literature suggests that preservice teachers hold similar initial beliefs, viewing the teacher as the authority gure passing knowledge to the students. In consistency with constructivist practice, these beliefs should be challenged to enable the preservice teachers to develop alternative ideas, seeing the students capable of constructing knowledge with the help of the teacher. These beliefs are found difcult to change in the course environment. Drawing on surveys and teaching observations from four preser- vice teachers in an introduction methods course, the study showed that the four participants had different epistemological beliefs, some beliefs being more resistant to change than others. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Preservice teachers' initial beliefs about teaching are assumed to impact the quality and process of their learning to teach and teaching practice (Kennedy, 1991a; Richardson, 1997). Two assumptions are developed about these initial beliefs in the teacher education literature. First, preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are often idealistic (Paine, 1989). Such beliefs reect their typical ethnic background and school experiences as young white females, growing up in the small rural or suburban middle class communities and having very limited experience about people from different cultural and social backgrounds (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005a). These initial beliefs are often contra- dictory to the kind of teaching they need to learn in the teacher education program, especially the standards-based teaching developed following the constructivist perspectives of learning (Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996; Wang & Odell, 2002) and the cultural-relevant instruction for the children with diverse back- grounds and learning experiences in the urban multicultural school contexts (Haberman, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1999). However, the research supporting this rst assumption has its limitations, as most of the empirical evidence for preservice teachers' initial beliefs comes from studies focusing on those university programs where the preservice teachers are mostly young, female, white students with small town backgrounds (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005b). Such a sample may not accurately reect the situation in many urban university programs, which tend to have a more diversied preservice teachers population. These preservice teachers bring different initial beliefs of teaching into their programs, and many of these beliefs may not need to be changed but strengthened or further developed (Hollins & Guzman, 2005). The second assumption is that preservice teachers' years of apprenticeship of observation about teaching as students in their own school contexts made their initial beliefs inexible to change (Ball & McDiarmid, 1989; Lortie, 1975). Research showed that these beliefs are seldom changed through concrete teacher education coursework even if many courses are designed with focus on changing preservice teachers' conception by engaging them in case analysis, eld-observation and experience (Kagan, 1992; Richardson, 1997; Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998). Such research leads to the assumption that a short-term course-based intervention designed to change preservice teachers' beliefs is too fragmented to be effective and only long-term and consistent interventions throughout the program are necessary (Kagan, 1992). However, such a nding may not be always consistent with all kinds of teacher education students from various contexts, as even shorter interventions may lead to different degrees of change in preservice teachers' epistemological beliefs (Brownlee, Purdie & Boulton-Lewis, 2001; Gill, Ashton, & Algina, 2004). In an attempt to provide a clearer understanding of the concep- tual change in preservice teachers' epistemologic beliefs, this study aims at identifying the different beliefs preservice teachers hold, and * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 904 620 1258; fax: þ1 904 620 1025. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tanase). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.02.009 Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 1238e1248

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Page 1: Initial epistemological beliefs transformation in one teacher education classroom: Case study of four preservice teachers

lable at ScienceDirect

Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 1238e1248

Contents lists avai

Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ tate

Initial epistemological beliefs transformation in one teacher educationclassroom: Case study of four preservice teachers

Madalina Tanase a,*, Jian Wang b

aDepartment of Foundations and Secondary Education, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville FL 32224, USAbUniversity of Nevada Las Vegas, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 24 July 2009Received in revised form5 February 2010Accepted 11 February 2010

Keywords:Epistemological beliefsConceptual changePreservice teachersTeacher education

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 904 620 1258; faxE-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tan

0742-051X/$ e see front matter Published by Elseviedoi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.02.009

a b s t r a c t

Education literature suggests that preservice teachers hold similar initial beliefs, viewing the teacher asthe authority figure passing knowledge to the students. In consistency with constructivist practice, thesebeliefs should be challenged to enable the preservice teachers to develop alternative ideas, seeing thestudents capable of constructing knowledge with the help of the teacher. These beliefs are found difficultto change in the course environment. Drawing on surveys and teaching observations from four preser-vice teachers in an introduction methods course, the study showed that the four participants haddifferent epistemological beliefs, some beliefs being more resistant to change than others.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction

Preservice teachers' initial beliefs about teaching are assumedto impact the quality and process of their learning to teachand teaching practice (Kennedy, 1991a; Richardson, 1997). Twoassumptions are developed about these initial beliefs in the teachereducation literature. First, preservice teachers' beliefs aboutteaching and learning are often idealistic (Paine, 1989). Such beliefsreflect their typical ethnic background and school experiencesas young white females, growing up in the small rural or suburbanmiddle class communities and having very limited experienceabout people from different cultural and social backgrounds(Zumwalt & Craig, 2005a). These initial beliefs are often contra-dictory to the kind of teaching they need to learn in the teachereducation program, especially the standards-based teachingdeveloped following the constructivist perspectives of learning(Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996; Wang & Odell, 2002) and thecultural-relevant instruction for the children with diverse back-grounds and learning experiences in the urban multicultural schoolcontexts (Haberman, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1999).

However, the research supporting this first assumption hasits limitations, as most of the empirical evidence for preserviceteachers' initial beliefs comes from studies focusing on thoseuniversity programs where the preservice teachers are mostly

: þ1 904 620 1025.ase).

r Ltd.

young, female, white students with small town backgrounds(Zumwalt & Craig, 2005b). Such a sample may not accurately reflectthe situation inmany urban university programs,which tend to havea more diversified preservice teachers population. These preserviceteachers bring different initial beliefs of teaching into theirprograms, andmany of these beliefs may not need to be changed butstrengthened or further developed (Hollins & Guzman, 2005).

The second assumption is that preservice teachers' years ofapprenticeship of observation about teaching as students in theirown school contexts made their initial beliefs inflexible to change(Ball & McDiarmid, 1989; Lortie, 1975). Research showed that thesebeliefs are seldom changed through concrete teacher educationcoursework even ifmanycourses are designedwith focus on changingpreservice teachers' conception by engaging them in case analysis,field-observation and experience (Kagan, 1992; Richardson, 1997;Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998). Such research leads to theassumption that a short-term course-based intervention designed tochange preservice teachers' beliefs is too fragmented to be effectiveand only long-term and consistent interventions throughout theprogram are necessary (Kagan, 1992). However, such a finding maynot be always consistent with all kinds of teacher education studentsfrom various contexts, as even shorter interventions may lead todifferent degrees of change in preservice teachers' epistemologicalbeliefs (Brownlee, Purdie & Boulton-Lewis, 2001; Gill, Ashton, &Algina, 2004).

In an attempt to provide a clearer understanding of the concep-tual change in preservice teachers' epistemologic beliefs, this studyaims at identifying the different beliefs preservice teachers hold, and

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track the degree of change undergone by each participant followingtheir exposure to a short-term intervention. The results of this studyattempt to challenge the assumptions that preservice teachers tendto hold similar initial beliefs and that their conceptual change is onlypossible through a long-term sequential process, suggesting thatchange of these beliefs in the course environment is multidimen-sional, some beliefs being more difficult to change than others.

2. Personal epistemological beliefs and their development

Following the theory of personal epistemological beliefs and theirsequential development (Perry, 1981), this study assumes that centralto the change of preservice teachers' initial beliefs of learning(the construction of knowledge) and teaching (the facilitation ofconstruction of knowledge) are their personal epistemological beliefs,that is their beliefs of the nature and validity of knowledge. Differentpreservice teachers have different beliefs about the nature of knowl-edge, which determines to what extent, in what ways and contexts,preservice teachers will change their specific ideas of teaching(Cooney, 2001). Based on this assumption, the change of specificbeliefs of teaching in teacher education classroom requires teachereducators to develop a deeper understanding of both the meaningsand strength of preservice teachers' initial epistemological beliefs.

However, in the existing teacher education literature, substantialattention is paid to changing preservice teachers' beliefs of learningand teaching using various approaches like case analysis (Sykes &Bird, 1992), autobiographical reflections (Hollins & Guzman, 2005),collaborative reflection on teaching (Hiebert, Gallimore, & Stigler,2002), and field-observation (Putnam & Borko, 1997). The expecta-tion is that by engaging preservice teachers in these activities, theywill have a chance to analyze and reflect on themeaningof their ownbeliefs aswell as their limitations so that the alternative ideas can bebetter understood and internalized (Kennedy, 1991b). Research onpreservice teachers' initial epistemological beliefs and their changeunder the influences of these instructional approaches is not welldeveloped however (Cooney, Shealy, & Arvold, 1998; Kuhn, Cheney,& Weinstock, 2000).

The assumption that one's personal epistemological beliefs havedifferent meanings has been verified by a series of studies. Drawingon interviews with male undergraduate students, Perry (1970)found that his subjects tended to be: (1) dualistic (viewingknowledge as absolute truths; an idea is right or wrong dependingon an authoritative figure); (2) multiplistic (knowledge is eitherabsolute ideas from authorities or ideas about which the authorityis not certain); (3) relativistic (knowledge is personally constructedand its verification depends on coherent sources allowing foranalysis and comparison), and (4) commitment believers (partic-ular ideas developed in the specific contexts aremore valuable thanexpert knowledge). Perry proposed that epistemological beliefschange is possible but synchronous; one cannot reach a higherstage by skipping any stages in between.

Magolda's study (1996) supports this synchronous developmentof epistemological beliefs drawing on interview and surveydata with 70 graduate education students regarding the nature ofknowledge. The stages emerging from the study were similar tothose identified by Perry (1970), including: (1) absolute knowing(knowledge is viewed as certain; acquiring knowledge is impor-tant), (2) transitional knowing (some knowledge is seen uncertainand understanding of the knowledge becomes important), (3)independent knowing (knowledge is mostly viewed as uncertainand one's own thinking is valued), and (4) contextual knowing(knowledge is determined contextually). The study further showedthat the last stage only happened to graduate students.

Other researchers (Schommer-Aikins, 1990; Schommer-Aikins,Mau, Brookhart, & Hutter, 2000) proposed a different categorization

of personal epistemological beliefs: (1) omniscient authority believer(the authoritative source is the sole base of knowledge); (2) certainknowledge believer (the certainty of knowledge is important insteadof its tentative nature); (3) simple knowledge believer (knowledge isa collection of pieces of information instead of integrated concepts);(4) quick learning believer (the speed of learning is an importantcriteria for judging knowledge acquisition), and (5) the innate abilitybeliever (one's abilityof gaining knowledge isfixedat birth and cannotbe improved). Schommer-Aikins also assumed that particular indi-viduals hold multiple epistemological beliefs in different categoriesand they may skip conceptual stages instead of moving througha sequenced process. Thus, the personal epistemological beliefs areseen asmultidimensional in their structure and asynchronous in theirdevelopment. Rukavina and Daneman (1996) also confirmed theseassumptions by presenting 82 high-school students and 40 collegeundergraduates with a series of texts discussing various competingscientific theories and then surveying their personal epistemologicalbeliefs.

Another line of research combines Perry's (1970) synchronousdevelopment of beliefs with Schommer-Aikins's (1990) asynchro-nous development. Kuhn et al. (2000) discussed the four levels ofepistemologic understanding, which they viewed as synchronous.People begin as realists (preschool children), accepting knowledgeas certain as it comes from external sources. Later on, adolescentsbecome absolutists, still viewing knowledge as certain but notdirectly accessible. Absolutists then become multiplists, viewingknowledge as generated by human minds and therefore uncertain.Adults become evaluatists, viewing knowledge as uncertain yetsusceptible to evaluation. Researchers (Kuhn et al., 2000; Kuhn &Park, 2005) however questioned whether or not this chronologycan be subject to different knowledge domains, examining whattypes of beliefs tend to change in a sample of seven groups ofchildren, adolescents and adults of different ages and educationalbackgrounds and they found that individuals may advance toevaluatist levels in some domains (truth domains), but remain at anabsolutist or multiplistic level in other domains (values domains).

The implications of the above three lines of research for under-standing preservice teachers' personal epistemological beliefs andtheir development are both valuable and different. On the one hand,if Perry's (1970) assumption is true, preservice teachers may changetheir beliefs but in a sequencedmanner. It is therefore important forteacher educators to identify at which conceptual stages preserviceteachers are as they enter the program and design program cour-sework in away that enables preservice teachers to go progressivelythrough those conceptual stages (Kagan, 1992).

On the other hand, should Schommer-Aikins (1990) and Kuhnet al.'s (2000) assumptions be right, then preservice teachers'personal conceptions can be changed depending on the nature oftheir individual epistemological beliefs. It is important for teachereducators to understand the characteristics of preservice teachers'personal epistemological beliefs as well as the particular contextualinfluence under which one's beliefs can be changed to carefullychoose teacher candidates for their program (Haberman, 1991,1993). More recent studies followed the above research patternson personal epistemological beliefs. Ravindran, Greene, andDeBaker (2000), used the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory with100 preservice teachers in their junior or senior year of an under-graduate program, and found that those who possessed differentpersonal epistemological beliefs used different kinds of teachingstrategies. For example, those who trusted the authority as a sourceof knowledge used shallow-processing teaching strategies, whilethose who believed that knowledge was derived throughreasoning, tended to use deep-processing teaching strategies.

A seriesof studies fromAustralia (Brownlee, 2004;Brownlee, Barry,Boulton-Lewis, &McCrindle,1998; Brownlee, Purdie & Boulton-Lewis,

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2001) found that graduate teacher education students often holdmultidimensional beliefs aspredictedby the Schommer-Aikins (1990).Students who believed that truths were personal construction sup-ported by evidence, also believed that their construction neededexpert facilitation. Those who believed that individuals constructedpersonal truths also accepted absolute truths if facilitated by theexperts. Drawing on pre- and post-surveys with four secondarymathematics preservice teachers from a U.S. university during theirstudent teaching, Cooney et al. (1998) found that different kinds ofepistemological beliefs offered different opportunities for participantsto change their beliefs. Although participants in the study all heldthe “dualist” beliefs about the nature of mathematics as either rightor wrong, those who developed new ideas through reflection ontheir own experience modified some of their absolute beliefs on thenature of mathematics. However, those who viewed knowledge asa purely individual construction held tight to their dualist view ofmathematics.

While contributing importantly to the understanding of teachereducation students' epistemological beliefs and their characteristics,the above studies focused either on the epistemological beliefs ofgraduate teacher education students or onpreservice teachers in themiddle or later part of their program. Little attention in the existingliterature is paid to preservice teachers' initial epistemologicalbeliefs and the development of these beliefs during a particularcoursework period where preservice teachers were constantlyengaged in collaborative reflection of the course readings, analysisof different case studies, and examination of their own ideas andalternative ideas of teaching as encouraged by the teacher educationliterature (Putnam & Borko, 1997; Sykes & Bird, 1992).

3. Methodology

3.1. Contexts and participants

Participants were students in an introduction methods course atan urban public university in the southwest U.S. The first authorwas the instructor of the class. This course was designed to exposepreservice teachers to different theories of learning and teaching,while providing themwith challenging situations that would lead toa conceptual change in their beliefs of teaching and learning. Theactivities designed by the instructor were geared towards exposingstudents to different points of view through the use of case studies,collaborative reflections on assigned readings in small groups or role-playing inwhich their individual ideas were exposed and contrastedwith ideas of the readings as well as ideas of their peers (Hollins &Guzman, 2005). Students were also asked to analyze video cases inwhich they were expected to see the concept or theory in action andthe potential problems when such a concept or theory was imple-mented (Sykes & Bird, 1992). At the end of the semester, studentswere engaged in a micro-teaching experience, which allowed themto use some of the ideas that they learned through the course whileconsidering subject concept, curriculum goals, and student back-grounds for a particular grade level (Putnam & Borko, 1997).

The four participants, Charlotte, Jim, Linda, and Jacob1, werechosen for this study from 21 undergraduate students with diversebackgrounds for the following reasons. First, they each representedone of the following two kinds of believers to which all preserviceteachers belonged based on the pre- and post-epistemologicalsurveys. Charlotte and Jim were dualist learners who saw knowl-edge as either right or wrong while Linda and Jacob were multi-plistic learners who regarded knowledge either as absolute or

1 Names used here to represent each participant are pseudonym for the purposeof protecting human subjects in the research.

uncertain. Second, they each represented the two patternsof conceptual changes in each category, to which all of the 21preservice teachers in the course belonged, and they could beclassified into thosewho changed their beliefs and thosewho failedto change. Charlotte and Linda changed their conceptions while theinitial conceptions held by Jim and Jacob stayed the same.

3.2. Data sources

Investigating a “contemporary phenomenon within its real-lifecontext” (Yin, 1984, p.23), this research allows for a case studymethodology, enabling the researchers to analyze the “how” and the“why” of the change in epistemological beliefs in four preserviceteachers. Multiple data sources were collected and evaluated to tellthe story of the participants from different angles. First, a pre- anda post-survey of their epistemological and teaching beliefs wereadministered in the beginning and end of the course, which enabledus to identify themeanings and strengths of the preservice teachers'epistemological initial and final beliefs. The pre-survey containedten open-ended questions that asked preservice teachers to statetheir opinions about the nature of knowledge, learning, and teachingand nine questions that provided a situation for participants totake a stand and explain their position. The post-survey included theabove-mentioned nineteen question, and six additional questionsthat asked the preservice teachers to compare their beliefs about thenature of knowledge, learning and teaching at the beginning and atthe end of the course and account for the change factors.

Second, written documents were collected from each partici-pant over the semester, such as: weekly reflections on the requiredreadings; one short statement about why participants wanted tobecome teachers at the beginning of the semester, and a picture oftheir future classroom that each participant drew in the beginningof the semester. These data enabled the researchers to investigatethe participants' both professed and tacit beliefs about the nature ofteaching and learning.

Third, the instructor took observational notes of each participant'sclassroom behavior throughout the semester and throughout his orher 20-min micro-teaching activity at the end of the semester. Theformer observational notes were collected to identify the tacit beliefsof teaching as reflected in their participation in the course activities.The later observation notes were taken to capture the participants'tacit beliefs reflected in teaching. As the literature showed, teachers'professed beliefs of teaching revealed from surveys and interviewsare not always consistent with their tacit ideas embedded in theirthinking and specific teaching practice (Thompson, 1992).

3.3. Data analysis

To explore preservice teachers' initial epistemological andteaching beliefs and the possible directions of their conceptualchanges during this course, we analyzed the above three sources ofdata to address four specific questions: What kinds of epistemo-logical beliefs and beliefs of teaching does each participanthold initially and at the end of the course? Second, to what extentare their epistemological beliefs and their beliefs of teaching andlearning different from each other? Third, to what extent are theirprofessed beliefs different from their tacit beliefs of teaching?Fourth, what are the changes in each participant's beliefs over thecourse and what influenced these changes? We conducted theanalysis at the following four levels.

First, we coded each participant's answers in the pre-survey andwe classified them into two categories: (1) their ideas of the nature ofknowledge and (2) their ideas of learning and teaching. We usedPerry's (1980) belief classification as a guide since this is the originalepistemological categorization system, largely used as primary

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reference point in adult learner studies, and we categorized eachparticipant's beliefs into the following four kinds: (1) dualist learner,(2) multiplistic knower, (3) relativist learner, and (4) commitmentknower. The researchers also wanted to test whether or not learnerschange their beliefs in a synchronousmanner (moving fromone to theother), or whether they skip some stages, as suggested by Schommer-Aikins (1990). The results of this analysiswere used to address thefirstpart of our first research question. Then, we also compared students'epistemological beliefs with their beliefs of learning and teachingshowed in the pre-survey to see to what extent their initial episte-mological beliefs and their initial ideas of learning and teaching areconsistent, in order to address the first part of our second question.

Second, we analyzed the post-survey in the same manner wedid for their pre-survey to identify their final epistemologicalbeliefs and their ideas of teaching and the extent to which thesetwo kinds of beliefs were consistent with each other. Results of thisanalysis were used to answer the other part of our first questionand the other part of the second question. We then compared theresults from the pre- survey and post-survey with each other tocapture the changes in each participant's epistemological beliefsover the course to address our fourth research question.

Third, we coded observational notes of each participant's class-room behaviors andmicro-teaching for their tacit beliefs of teachingreflected in the course activities and in their teaching. We comparedtheir tacit beliefs emerged from their classroom behaviors in theearlier semester with their initial professed epistemological andteaching beliefs from pre-survey to capture the similarities anddifferences between each participant's initial professed and tacitbeliefs. We also compared their tacit beliefs emerged from theirmicro-teaching with the results from their post-survey to identifythe similarities and differences between each participant's finalprofessed beliefs and their tacit ideas of learning and teaching.The results of this analysis were used to answer our third researchquestion.

Finally, we coded the documents of the four participants fortheir professed ideas of teaching as emergent and synthesizedeach participant's beliefs into their professed ideas of learningand teaching in the earlier, middle, and the end of the course. Thenwe compared their beliefs in different periods with each other toidentify any change. In the end, we contrasted the results fromthis comparison with results of our analysis on their pre- and post-survey data and the observational data to see any similarities anddifferences so that the findings from the survey and observationalanalysis could be enriched, challenged, or confirmed.

3.4. Limitations of the study

This study has three limitations, which will prevent the overallgeneralization of the findings. First, like all the case studies ofthe kind, the four cases reported here alone were insufficient torepresent the general situation of preservice teachers and theirconceptual changes in the various contexts of teacher education.Second, the investigators did not conduct any follow-up interviewsand observations to trace the participants' conceptual changesafter the course. The participants' beliefs and conceptual changesdiscussed here could not be used to represent their thoughts thatmight influence their teaching later. Third, one of the authors wasthe instructor and some of data collection belonged to the assign-ments of the course, which might color the data for this study.However, to reduce such an influence, the investigators explainedto the students that the content of their answers would not accountfor the grade and they could choose to withdraw from the studywithout any consequence. In addition, the multiple sources of datawere used in the analyses of this study to make sure its findingswere consistent across different data sources.

4. Findings

4.1. Charlotte: a dualist with substantial conceptual change

4.1.1. Initial epistemological beliefsCharlotte was a 36-year-old Caucasian female from England,

where she was a personal secretary for many years. After immi-grating to America, Charlotte was a teacher aid for a short periodand then entered the elementary teacher education program at theuniversity. She was not the typical teacher candidate as describedby the literature (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005a).

When entering the class, as shown in the pre-survey, Charlotte'spersonal epistemological beliefs were closer to those of a dualistlearner in several ways. She saw knowledge as concrete facts, orinformation that was either right or wrong. She stated that knowl-edge could be gained by listening to the teacher or reading frombooks, rather than through discussions with peers. She also thoughtthat the right knowledge could be acquired through instruction froman expert and the goal for one to learnwas to feel “confident enoughto attempt to answer when called on.”

With these epistemological ideas as a base, Charlotte viewedteaching as simply “passing on previously learned knowledge ora skill to another person.” Her above professed beliefs of teachingreflected in her teaching statement: “I would like to becomea teacher because I enjoy learning and spending timewith children.I am excited to pass on my knowledge. I feel I have a strong sense offairness and I have a desire to give all students an equal opportunityto succeed. “

Charlotte saw the teacher as the ultimate authority. To her,knowledgewas something passed on rather than actively constructed.When asked to drawadiagramof her future classroom, her above ideaof teaching emerged from the picture as in Fig. 1.

Charlotte positioned herself in front of the class, teachingstudents sitting at individual desks. According to her explanation ofthe picture, such a classroom atmosphere was beneficial to indi-vidual student reception of information that she passed throughher teaching.

4.1.2. Moment of conceptual changeIn the beginning of the course, Charlotte expected the course

instructor to provide information about theories and concepts oflearning, teaching, and classroommanagement, as evidenced in herpre-survey response, informal conversations with the instructor,and as well as implied in her earlier classroom behaviors. She didnot fully participate in the group activities, such as group readingreflections and the analysis of written and video cases. Observationnotes describe Charlotte listening to her peers' discussions aboutthe new concepts while seldom sharing her own ideas unless theinstructor or a group member asked for her opinion. Charlotte wasmore interested in participating in full class discussion, when shehad full access to the information from the instructor.

However, as the course progressed, Charlotte's behaviors startedto shift. She began to realize that knowledge could be activelyconstructedwhen onewas exchanging ideas with other people. Sheattributed her change to the group work designed in the course.As she explained in one of her reading reflections: “This class isa prime example of how small-group discussions can benefit eachgroupmember.On occasion, I am surprised on howmuchmy ownattitude and beliefs can be changed by listening to others andworking within a group.” Such a changed perspective about groupwork helped Charlotte decide to apply cooperative learning strat-egies in her future teaching. In one of her reflections, she statedthat cooperative learning in her future classroom could be“highly effective” for student learning, as she found it beneficial inthis class.

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Fig. 1. Charlotte's future classroom.

M. Tanase, J. Wang / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 1238e12481242

4.1.3. Final epistemological beliefs and teaching practiceIn the post-survey, Charlotte described how she changed her

initial beliefs about knowledge as information to be delivered bythe expert sources. She wrote, “knowledge is obtained from takingpart in many different activities”which contradicts her initial beliefthat “students would learn more if they sat at individual desks andlistened to the teacher.”

Charlotte's beliefs about teaching also changed somewhat.Although Charlotte initially believed teaching to be “a textbookexercise that followed a set of instructions and then succeeded,”she came to the understanding that “ideas must constantly change,and lessons must be revisited to ensure success” as shown in herpost-survey. As stated in one of Charlotte's final reflections: “thereis no recipe for teaching, good teaching involves constantlyreflecting and improving your teaching based on this reflection.”

For her micro-teaching, Charlotte taught a third-grade mathe-matics lesson designed to engage students in discovering ideasthrough hands-on activities and group work, while guiding them indeveloping new understandings of the bar graph. Charlotte beganher lessonwith the question, “If we were to open a school snack bar,what data would we need to collect?” and then engaged her peers incollecting and analyzing relevant data. In order to help her peersmake sense of the data collected, Charlotte guided them to categorizethese data into five groups and based on the reports of each group,she and the class turned data sets into a bar graph. Finally, shediscussed the role of each part of the bar graph and encouraged her“students” to do their own data collection and analysis. Charlotteplayed the role of a facilitator and not that of an instructor whodispersed knowledge, asmight have been the case in thebeginningofthe semester. The high degrees of conceptual change throughout thecourse moved Charlotte from a dualist towards a relativist knower.Her changed epistemological belief, in turn, changed her classbehaviors, specific ideas, and teaching in the later part of the course.

Charlotte's initial dualist belief of knowledge could have comefrom her years of apprenticeship of observation about teaching asa student and a teaching aid as shown in the literature (Ball &McDiarmid, 1989; Lortie, 1975). The group activities designed inthe class to help preservice teachers examine their own ideas andcontrast their ideas with the alternative perspectives of teachingand learning might have impacted her conceptual changes. Inthis situation, she was able to experience that the proper ideas ofteaching could be generated through collaborative reflections

about different ideas and at the same time, she could no longer hideher ideas or simply wait for a “right” answer.

4.2. Jim: an unchanged dualist

4.2.1. Initial epistemological beliefsJim was a twenty-five year-old African American male student

majoring in elementary education, and he claimed that he wasa student with a learning problem who still succeeded in school.He had been substitute teaching for two years when enrolled in thecourse. Jim was another atypical teacher education student.

As reflected in his pre-survey, Jim viewed knowledge likea dualist, believing knowledge was a set of right facts and theinformation could only be transmitted from the expert to a learner:“knowledge is power and this power could be gained only bylistening to the teacher.” With his dualist beliefs as a base, Jimfurther stated in his pre-survey that his role as a teacher was toexpose students to “the right knowledge” and wanted to be a goodrole model for his students. This idea of teaching was also reflectedin this statement: “I feel it is my gift to lead others in the rightdirection. I am good at getting people to listen to me, I am kind-hearted.”

In drawing his future classroom shown in Fig. 2 below, Jimpositioned himself in front of the classroom instructing students.Although students were assigned to work in groups, Jim explainedto his peers that by positioning himself in front of the classroom hewas in total control of his students while transmitting importantinformation.

4.2.2. Persistence of beliefsJim's tacit beliefs as reflected in his classroom behaviors were

consistent with his initial beliefs identified in the pre-survey andother document data. Based on the observation notes, Jim chose tostay passive during group activities while paying close attentionduring the lectures. This behavior seemed to be consistent with hisbelief that the teacher should first “demonstrate on the boardwhat the class should do,” after which students “come to the boardand write answers to questions.” Jim maintained this classroombehavior throughout the semester. In his written assignments,the teacher was always seen as the expert, and he believed thatstudents would all succeed if they listened to the teacher in a warmclassroom environment.

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Fig. 2. Jim's future classroom.

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4.2.3. Final epistemological beliefs and teaching practiceUnlike Charlotte, Jim did not change any of his epistemological

beliefs. In his post-survey, not only did Jim still believe that knowl-edge was a set of facts and information that were either right orwrong but he also saw learning as acquiring knowledge passed onfrom expert sources. He also believed that all students could learn ifthey were treated fairly. Jim's persistent epistemological beliefs werealso reflected in his micro-teaching practice, a fifth-grade mathe-matics lesson. During the lesson, he assumed the role of the authoritysource, correcting students' wrong answers. He heavily relied on thetextbook for individual student practice and assessed his studentperformance by asking them to the board and showing their solu-tions to the problems from the textbook without any modifications.

Jim was a dualist knower like Charlotte and both were exposedto the similar course influences. However, Jim failed to change anyof his epistemological beliefs and remained a dualist knowerat both professed and tacit levels to the end of the course. Hisclassroom behaviors and teaching were consistent with his epis-temological beliefs. Jim's initial dualist belief of knowledge couldbe attributed to his years of apprenticeship of observation asa student (Ball & McDiarmid, 1989; Lortie, 1975) and his experienceas substitute teacher. His “successful” experience in survivingschooling as a student with learning problems through his carefullistening to and modeling after the teacher could make his dualistideas of knowledge substantially stronger.

4.3. Linda: a multiplistic knower with moderate change

4.3.1. Initial epistemological beliefsLinda was a twenty-two years old Caucasian female student in

elementary education, who fitted the typical preservice teacherprofile (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005a). She had little formal teachingexperience except for a short internship in a high school.

Linda started the course believing knowledge was the rightinformation one could learn from the teacher. In her initial survey,Linda stated that over the years, more information was developedand teachers needed to use various strategies to effectively passthis new information to their students. However, she also claimedthat one's knowledge could be developed through sharing whatlearners knew with each other in “a positive classroom environ-ment promoting encouragement and acceptance.” Her epistemo-logical views were closer to a multiplistic learner in that knowledgewas seen as both information delivered by the expert and con-structed among learners through sharing.

Based on the pre-survey, Linda's idea of teaching reflected herbeliefs as she viewed herself providing a safe learning environmentthat promoted acceptance so that students could gain knowledgethrough sharing with each other. Such a view of teacher's role wasalso reflected in Linda’ explanation of why she wanted to becomea teacher: “I want to be a teacher because I enjoy working withchildren. The classrooms in elementary school are full of encour-agement, nurturing, warmth, and love. Different methods can beused to promote learning in a positive classroom environment.”Linda's idea of classroom as a nurturing place where students canshare information was a central theme in the drawing of her futureclassroom as in Fig. 3:

In this picture, she positioned herself in the bottom right corner,very close to the students working at different activity tables. Thisposition would grant her easy access to different learning groups(i.e. reading corner, computer station, activity tables) and studentscould share their information in a comfortable environment.

4.3.2. Moderate change in beliefsLinda's classroom behaviors in the beginning of the semester

were consistent with her initial professed epistemological beliefsthat learning should occur in a comfortable environment. In this

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Fig. 3. Linda's future classroom.

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environment, the teacher held the expertise and everybody's ideaswere appreciated while challenge for students' ideas was not seenimportant. In an informal conversation with the course instructor,Linda confessed that she felt uncomfortable when her ideas werechallenged during group work. This was reflected in one activity inwhich Linda's group had to defend their position that teachersmight not be ready for including special education students intheir classrooms. Observational notes showed Linda was reluctantto express her ideas even if the instructor stressed that the purposeof the activity was to develop arguments to defend one's position.Linda said that it was not politically correct to plead againstinclusion and did not get involved in the debate.

As the course progressed, Linda started to realize that teacherscould help students understand new material in situationswhere their ideas were challenged. Such a conceptual change wasreflected in one of her reading reflections on a teaching strategy,task analysis, designed to support students to develop solutions toproblems. Linda wrote: “I have wondered what teachers can do tohelp students learn material and to ensure that students will besuccessful with new material. Now I know how teachers can havebetter results with new material: teachers can pose problems andask students to come up with solutions. “ Linda's epistemologicalbeliefs slightly changed from only creating an environment inwhich students could accept and share their ideas with each otherto the belief that the teacher also needed to challenge students toconstruct solutions to a problem.

4.3.3. Final epistemological beliefs and teaching practiceBy the end of the semester, Linda's epistemological beliefs about

the nature of knowledge remained unchanged as she still sawknowledge as a series of facts that one accumulated over time asshown in her final survey. However, her view of how one acquiredknowledge slightly changed. She started to see that in order todevelop a deeper understanding of new knowledge, a classroomenvironment where learners were both comfortable to share witheach other and challenged to reconstruct their ideas was crucial.As she stated in her final survey, “knowledge is gained over time,but different people have different ways of learning and it is OK topush students beyond their comfort zone.”

Linda's newly developed epistemological beliefs were consis-tent with her micro-teaching lesson on shapes designed forkindergarteners. She started the lesson by showing objects that haddifferent shapes (squares, rectangles, circles). She then asked thestudents to look at the objects and identify how these shapes weresimilar/different from one another. Based on these similarities anddifferences, students were further asked to come up with defini-tions for different shapes and then use the definitions to identifysimilar shapes in the magazine articles that she provided. In thisinductive process, students were challenged to justify their ideas topersuade other students or to modify their ideas and accept others'suggestions based on the reasons and evidence provided by theother students.

Over the course, Linda blended her initial epistemologicalbeliefs with some new ideas. On one hand, she held knowledgeas accumulated information and facts; on the other hand, shestarted to see that students needed to be challenged in order todevelop their knowledge. Like a multiplistic knower, she failed torealize that some of her personal epistemological beliefs mightbe contradictory to each other. For example, it cannot always becomfortable for anyone when challenged to know somethingdifferent from what they believed in since people tend to acceptideas consistent with their own ideas (Von Glasersfeld, 1995).Her teaching practice reflected this nature of her epistemologicalbeliefs.

Linda changed her belief that learning had to be situated ina comfortable environment in which students can share theirknowledge with each other towards an idea that an environmentwhere students can share with each other comfortably and at thesame time, their ideas can be challenged, was necessary for studentlearning. Such conceptual development might be related to thekind of group work in which she was involved in the class, as sheexamined her own ideas and her peers' ideas in comparison withthe ideas from readings. However, it was also obvious that herconceptual change was moderate and occurring within her owncomfortable zone in an additive manner without realizing theconflicting nature of her old and new ideas, which was consistentwith the literature on the conceptual change of typical preserviceteachers (Banks, 1991; Paine, 1989).

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4.4. Jacob: an unchanged multiplistic learner

4.4.1. Initial epistemological beliefsJacob was a twenty-three years old Caucasian male majoring in

elementary educationwith no formal teaching experience. This wasJacob's second career, as he had been a truck driver before startinghis education classes.

The analysis of Jacob's pre-survey suggested that he was a multi-plistic knower. Like a dualist, he believed that knowledge was abso-lute truth that could be accumulated, and like a relativist he thoughtthat knowledge could also be discovered with others' assistance.Jacob insisted that it was the teacher's responsibility to use multipleteaching styles to accommodate the needs of all students andchallenge students' preexisting beliefs so that they could be open tolearning. As he stated in his initial survey: “Teaching is a combinationof knowledge and experience. Knowing one's students meansknowing their strengths and weaknesses, it means knowing whatthey know or do not know, it means pushing them to know more.”

Knowing how and what students learn seemed to play animportant role in Jacob's teaching decision making. His beliefs thatknowledge was absolute truth strongly influenced his belief ofteaching. Thiswas shown in his future classroomdrawing as in Fig. 4.

In this picture, Jacob sat among students who were busylearning in different types of activities. In discussing his picture

Fig. 4. Jacob's futu

with his peers, Jacob claimed that he could stay in the middle of hisstudents assisting and challenging each group.

4.4.2. Persistence of beliefsJacob's initial epistemological belief that knowledge developed

through social interaction and discovery were reflected in hisclass behavior. Jacob was active in all the group activities andeager to make sense of the new concepts with the help of his peers.According to the observational notes, Jacob would often providethoughtful insights about the readings and help his groupmembersdefend their points of view in the classroom debates. In one classactivity, students were asked to work in groups to develop a mocktalk show inwhich they had to role play different learning theorists.Jacob's groupwas chosen to play Skinner.Whilemost studentswerereluctant to play Skinner because of the questions raised by both thetalk show host and the other learning theorists, Jacob volunteeredto be Skinner and delivered a wonderful interpretation of behav-iorist theories.

In his weekly reflections over the semester, Jacob always raisedquestions about the textbook, used his experience to backup whathe learned from reading, and connected his learning to his futureteaching. The following was an example in such a reflection thatshowed his critiquing disposition to what he read: “I reallyappreciate the point of view of the text. Instead of claiming to have

re classroom.

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all the answers, the text presents a lot of differing perspectives withthe understanding that each individual teacher will have to do hisor her best to effectively implement these strategies.“

4.4.3. Final epistemological beliefs and teaching practiceThe analysis of Jacob's post-survey suggested that his beliefs as

a multiplistic knower remained the same throughout the course.In the survey, he stated that knowledge was accurate informationthat accumulated and “the more knowledge people possess inregards to the teaching process, the more successful they will be.”On the other hand, he also stressed students' sharing of knowledgeas a way to gain knowledge.

With these ideas as a base, he insisted that the role of theteacher was to use “a plethora of teaching styles to address theirstudents' needs” as students had different learning styles and theuse of teaching strategy depended on the kinds of students that onewas teaching. In the post-survey, Jacob stated that some studentswould learn more if pushed to discover the knowledge and otherswould learn better if exposed to direct instruction. The teacher'sresponsibility was to know the students and use different strategiesto accommodate their needs.

Jacob's teaching was consistent with his epistemological beliefsand ideas of teaching. Jacob'smicro-teaching experiencewas a third-grade social studies lesson. Jacob started the lesson by asking hisstudents to share their knowledge of the Mount Rushmore. Then heengaged them in remembering the four presidents on Mount Rush-more and the roles that these presidents played in the U.S. history indifferent ways based on the information sources that he prepared. Inthis way, the lesson first focused on students' own knowledge, thenchecked their knowledgewith the sources of information, and finally,students were enabled to internalize correct information about thepresidents in different ways.

Jacob stayed true to his initial epistemological beliefs throughoutsemester. Although his epistemological beliefs were not alwaysconsistent, such as knowledge as truth that could be accumulatedand at the same time, could be discovered and constructed person-ally, Jacob failed to be aware of these potential conflicting ideas, likea multiplistic learner. His teaching practice reflected his epistemo-logical beliefs.

The persistence of Jacob's epistemological beliefs can be inter-preted in several ways. Part of his belief that knowledge wasgenerated through one's discovery and sharing with other peoplewas consistent with the classroom environment in which studentscould share and challenge each other. Thus, his conceptual changewas not necessary and instead, this part of his belief was greatlyreinforced. The other part of his idea that knowledge was absolutetruth was never challenged in the class to confront directly withhis idea that knowledge came from one's discovery and sharing. Asa result, he was able to live with his epistemological beliefs aboutknowledge that had potential conflicting elements.

5. Discussion

This study explored four preservice teachers' personal episte-mological beliefs, the change of these beliefs under the context ofa teacher education classroom, and influences of these conceptualchanges on the students' teaching practice. Our analyses led to thefollowing findings.

First, our analysis showed that participants may bring differentpersonal epistemological beliefs into a teacher education classroom.Charlotte and Jim held initial epistemological beliefs closer to thoseof a dualist while Linda and Jacob held their epistemological beliefssimilar to those of a multiplistic learner. These differences in theirinitial epistemological beliefs were directly related to their initialideas of teaching and shaped to what extent they could change their

epistemological beliefs and their beliefs about teaching in thisclassroom. A related finding was that the kinds of epistemologicalbeliefs held by our participants were limited to the views of eitherdualist ormultiplistic knower. This seemed to be consistent with thefinding emerged from other studies using preservice teachers in themiddle of their program (Ravindran et al., 2000) and secondarymathematic preservice teachers in the later part of their program(Cooney et al., 1998).

Second, the different kinds of personal epistemological beliefsthat each participant held were not always consistent witheach other. Instead, these beliefs could acquire multidimensionalfeatures (Schommer-Aikins, 1990). For example, Linda and Jacobboth were multiplistic believers who held the ideas of a dualist anda relativist believer about knowledge inconsistent with each otheralthough Charlotte and Jim seemed to hold the consistent ideas ofa dualist learner.

Such situations reflected the findings from other studies ongeneral student population (Schommer-Aikins et al., 2000) andpreservice teachers (Brownlee, 2004; Brownlee, Purdie, Boulton, &-Lewis, 2001). Depending on whether they were able to beprovoked to see these inconsistent ideas themselves, we assume thatthese inconsistencies could open the door or eliminate the chancesfor the preservice teachers to change their epistemological beliefsand their conceptions of teaching. However, to push preserviceteachers to see these inconsistencies at an individual level representsa challenge for teacher educators in the teacher education classroom.

Third, the study suggests that participants' epistemologicalbeliefs about knowledge could impact their teaching and thetransformation of their beliefs could further lead to the change oftheir teaching ideas and practice. Both Jim and Jacob did not changetheir initial epistemological beliefs about knowledge throughout thecourse, and their classroom behaviors and later practices of teachingwere consistent with their unchanged beliefs about knowledge.Charlotte's initial classroom behaviors, and specific ideas of teachingwere aligned with her initial dualist ideas of knowledge. As shechanged her epistemological ideas towards those of a relativistknower, her ideas of teaching changed accordingly. In addition,Linda's initial classroom behaviors and ideas of teaching matchedher initial multiplistic beliefs about knowledge and learning. Hermodified epistemological beliefs that both challenging and sharingwere necessary in the learning environment were reflected in hermicro-teaching.

Fourth, our analysis shows that to some degree, conceptualchange was possible during this short-term intervention, and thatsuch a change was asynchronous (Schommer-Aikins, 1990). BothCharlotte and Linda changed their epistemological ideas under theclassroom environment. However, Charlotte's beliefs went fromthat of a dualist directly to that of a relativist while Linda onlyhad moderate changes in her beliefs of how knowledge can bedeveloped while holding onto her dualist views of the nature ofknowledge. These findings suggest that it is important to identifythe kinds of epistemological beliefs that preservice teachers bringinto their classroom (Haberman, 1991, 1993) and the classroomcontexts in which certain epistemological beliefs can be trans-formed or modified (Putnam & Borko, 1997).

However, whether these changes can be hold throughout theirprogram and into their actual teaching is still a question that isworth exploration. Often the changes in preservice teachers' beliefsabout teaching and learning under a particular course context arenot sustained over time as preservice teachers encounter schooland classroom contexts that contradict their developed ideas inteacher education classes (Pajares, 1992; Zeichner & Liston, 1987).Therefore, it is important to develop more longitudinal studies onpreservice teachers epistemological growth and how such growthaffect their beliefs of teaching and learning as well as their teaching

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practice in teacher education programs (Bondy et al., 2007) and intotheir teaching contexts (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2006).

6. Conclusions

This study leads to the following conclusions about conceptualchanges of preservice teachers in the coursework environmentand offer the relevant implications for teacher educators who arecommitted to reforming their program courses. The researcherswould like to stress the fact that these conclusions emerged fromthe findings of the study at hand and they may not be generalizedto the large preservice teacher population.

First, this study suggests that preservice teachers may bringdifferent kinds of epistemological beliefs with different levels ofstrength into teacher education classrooms, which can be consis-tent with or contradictory to what teacher educators try to teachin their classroom, and which shape their specific ideas and prac-tice of teaching. This conclusion challenges the assumption thatpreservice teachers hold similar epistemological beliefs and theconceptual change is only possible through a long-term sequentialprocess (Perry, 1981).

One implication of this conclusion may be that to simply bringa conceptual change mentality into the design of teacher educationclassroom can be problematic since it presumes preserviceteachers' beliefs are consistent and single dimensional. However,in the current teacher education literature and practice, such anassumption of preservice teachers' beliefs and their changes playsan important role in shaping the goals and rationales underlyingvarious teacher education programs that are designed to challengepreservice teachers' conceptions (Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996;Feiman-Nemser, Schwille, Carver, & Yusko, 1999). It is important todevelop a deeper understanding about the nature and strength ofpreservice teachers' epistemological beliefs and use it as a base fordesigning teacher education programs.

Second, the study showed that preservice teachers may undergovarious degrees of change throughout a course, from substantial tomoderate to no change at all. Our assumption regarding this changeis that it depends on whether preservice teachers' initial episte-mological ideas can be specifically challenged to create a concep-tual discrepancy in their mind. This conclusion indicates that theinfluence on preservice teachers' conceptual changes needed to bepersonalized and contextualized, which challenges the develop-mental mentality (Kagan, 1992) popular not only in thinking aboutpreservice teacher learning but also in shaping various kinds ofteacher education program and coursework in practice.

Therefore, in designing the introduction course in teachereducation, especially those programs that draw their students fromdifferent cultural, social, and professional backgrounds, attentionshould be paid to the two functions of the course. First, the courseneeds to play the role in identifying the nature, kinds, and strengthof the beliefs that preservice teachers bring with them so thatqualified students can be properly selected. Second, the courseneeds to offer opportunities for preservice teachers to expose andexamine their ideas independently and in collaborationwith othersin relevant teaching contexts (Wideen et al., 1998). In this process,those beliefs held by preservice teachers that are not consistentwith those embedded in what they need to learn in their coursescan be hopefully identified, challenged, and modified while thosebeliefs consistent with what they need to learn should be rein-forced and contextualized in teaching practice.

In addition, in challenging and transforming those inconsistentbeliefs, we need to pay attention not only to the beliefs that aredirectly related to the specific practice of teaching and learning, butalso to those epistemological conceptions that preservice teachersheld. As this study showed, these epistemological beliefs could

influence to what extent preservice teachers' beliefs of teachingand learning can be strengthened or further improved.

However, to implement these suggestions for the introductioncourse is quite challenging for many teacher education programs inthe current education contexts, especially those that are preparingteachers for the urban diverse context for three reasons. First,schools in the urban diverse contexts are often the areas whereteachers are mostly needed, yet few teachers would like to teachthere. Thus, the gatekeeper function of the introduction course inthe program would be politically incorrect as the program wasbeing pushed to produce more teachers out of relatively fewerapplicants (Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996).

Second, these suggestions indicate that the changes of teachereducators' role, class size, andworkload, in turn require the supportof more resources and retaining of faculty members. However, sucha requirement can be problematic considering that many policymakers do not hold the teacher education course to be an impor-tant source for preparing teachers and as a result, more and moreresources are diverted from formal teacher education programs tothe alternative routes (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2001).

Third, teaching and school contexts even if in the same urbanschool district often reflect different epistemological assumptionsof knowledge and learning, which shaped the cultures and prac-tices of teaching and student learning in different ways (Anyon,1981). Most teacher education programs have virtually little influ-ence on the particular school context or classroom teaching prac-tice to which their students will be exposed or control over whichschool or classroom their students can be placed for their practicumor student teaching. Thus, even if preservice teachers can formproper epistemological beliefs and relevant ideas of teaching andlearning, it is still a question whether these beliefs can survive inthe teaching and school contexts whose cultural norms and prac-tice of teaching may be contradictory to the epistemologic beliefsthat these preservice teacher hold (Cochran-Smith, 1991).

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