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125). Thus, beliefs play a decisive role in teachers’ professional development (online or face- to-face). As the purpose of PD is to improve teaching and learning, which is a challenging goal in the educational system, therefore it is imperative to study the beliefs of teachers about PD and how they are constructed. Ford (1992) found two types of beliefs, namely, capability and context beliefs. Personal agency beliefs, which are a combination of capability and context beliefs, control the level motivation level a person need to attain a particular objective (Ford, 1992). Teachers' beliefs encompass beliefs about related educational components (Porter & Freeman, 1986). In teacher professional development, the objectives are that teachers acquire pedagogical knowledge and skills expected to improve students’
performance. Their motivations for participating in online professional development are influenced by their capability and context beliefs.
2.5.3 Context beliefs
Context beliefs are beliefs that guide response to the environment (external factors and/or people). Control beliefs are occasionally known as perceptions of control and are the same as Ajzen and Madden’s (1986) perceived behavioural control construct and Bandura’s (1997) outcome expectancy construct (Lumpe, Charlene, Haney, & Beltyukova, 2010). The role of the whole context to meet the desired goals forms part of context beliefs. In the case of professional development for secondary school teachers, context beliefs would consist of students, rectors, managers, parents, teachers, institutions and the physical environment. The online learning evolves in a virtual environment for online PD for secondary school teachers.
The researcher would also include virtual environment in the previous list. In an educational system, contexts can be generally categorised into school environment (equipment, buildings), human environment (parents, faculty, students), and socio-cultural environment (cultural norms, policy) (Ford, 1992). Belief changes from context to context. Thus, changing one of the variables changes the context, implying changing teachers’ beliefs.
2.5.4 Capability beliefs
Bandura (1997) has studied the concept of self-efficacy beliefs and is like Ford’s (1992) concept of capability beliefs which is somebody’s belief about his/her ability. Self- efficacy beliefs define the way people motivate themselves, behave, feel and think.
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Cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes are four major processes through which various beliefs are produced. Teachers’ self-efficacy will probably increase through mastery experiences, acquired through determination, or/and through professional development courses and supported by feedback from colleagues or trainers in a non- threatening environment, assuming that teachers have certain capabilities (Bandura 2006).
Self-efficacy is the capacity to anticipate difficulty and the ability to judge the ability to complete a task (Pajares & Urdan, 2006). Such beliefs improve human accomplishment and personal well-being, hence fostering intrinsic interest (Xu, 2012). Therefore, teachers must have vigorous self-efficacy to sustain the perseverance needed to be successful in online professional development programmes. A key factor in online learning is self-efficacy (Cho
& Jonassen, 2009; Cho, Shen, & Laffey, 2010). Ermeling (2010) stated that, in the beginning, experienced teachers also have difficulties with a new instructional technique. If teachers have high self-efficacy beliefs, they can adopt an efficacious behaviour towards online professional development, thereby promoting progress in their professions, as teachers’ self- efficacy determines their behaviour. Lim (2001) added that a major predictor for online learners’ fulfilment and their intention to engage in online courses in the future was self- efficacy. Lim’s opinion was later confirmed by Womble (2008) and McGhee (2010) who showed that the relationship between e-learning self-efficacy and learner’s satisfaction is significant and positive. Gender is another factor which influences teachers’ feelings of self- efficacy (Sang, Valcke, Braak, & Tondeur, 2010; Schere & Siddiq, 2015). In some studies, females have been reported to consider themselves as less ICT competent than males (Durndell & Haag, 2002; Scherer & Siddiq, 2015; Sieverding & Koch, 2009). Males tend to attribute their failure to external factors (Koch, Müller & Sieverding, 2008). But other researchers do not find such influence of gender on self-efficacy beliefs (Compton, Burkett,
& Burkett, 2003; Pamuk & Peker, 2009).
A study carried out by Piper (2003) provides evidence that among teachers who use technology in their classroom, skills and knowledge may be seen as less important than self- efficacy. Therefore, to increase teachers’ confidence in using technology to achieve student learning objectives rather than just to do administrative and communicative activities, time and effort must be provided (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Teachers’ confidence will not increase as long as they have not witnessed how technology helps student success.
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We can start with small successful experiences; this increases teachers’ confidence (Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2007). Self-efficacy may not be enough to value technology as an instructional tool. Therefore, we need to explore another factor that may influence teachers’
beliefs about OPD is their pedagogical beliefs.
2.5.5 Pedagogical beliefs
“Teachers’ understandings, assumptions or propositions about teaching and learning constitute pedagogical beliefs” (Lim, Tondeur, Nastiti & Pagram, 2014, p. 3). Therefore, these beliefs play an important role in teachers’ pedagogical decisions concerning how and whether to use technology in their classroom practices (Deng, Chai, Tsai, & Lee, 2014; Inan
& Lowther, 2010). These beliefs are normally considered as the knowledge construction view or the knowledge transmission view (Teo et al., 2008; Wong et al., 2009). In the knowledge transmission view lessons are prepared and disseminated in a teacher-centred and content-oriented way, whereas through the knowledge construction view, the students are active. The teacher designs learning experiences based on the students’ previous experiences. Teachers’ pedagogical beliefs greatly influence their classroom practices (Fives
& Gill, 2015; Kagan, 1992; Pajares, 1992; Richardson, 1996). Using online professional development of teachers to resolve teachers’ pedagogical beliefs can be crucial in changing teachers’ instructional practices to enhance student learning outcomes. An adaptive teacher education related to teachers’ beliefs is more likely to be accepted by teachers (Ertmer, 2005;
Lim et al., 2013) in contrast to the current traditional face-to-face teacher education. Becker and Ravitz (1999) claim that pedagogical practices of teachers and beliefs are constantly fashioned by their continuing experiences as teachers. Thus, action which resulted from beliefs, in turn lead to the formation of new, reconstructed or reaffirmed beliefs (Haney et al., 2002). Also, OPD must help in redirecting teachers’ “to focus on pedagogy rather than on the technology itself” (O’Rourke, 2001, p. 13). But teachers are expected to accept innovative strategies that are related to what they believe pertaining to teaching and learning (Lim et al., 2013). It is clear that teachers have access to technology as described in the introduction chapter, but the ability to use it in their classroom or in their own education is lagging behind. Prior studies which recognise that the way learners learn is influenced by their experiences, personalities and characteristics (Daniel, 2014). Since learners have
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different learning styles. Therefore, all these learning styles must be integrated in each course.
Some learners may be fast, while others may be slow in mastering the required skills (Daniel, 2014). Moreover, as suggested by Nespor (1987), educational change is not about leaving pedagogical beliefs, but progressively substituting or enriching these pedagogical beliefs with system beliefs which are relevant to teachers’ instructional context. Therefore, short PD courses’ objectives need to be clear and related to teachers’ needs (Lauer et al., 2014).
2.5.6 Challenging beliefs
After having critically studied some types of beliefs that teachers hold, some ways to challenge these beliefs are presented to intentionally change them. But as stated in the previous chapters, these beliefs are hard to transform as they are static in nature. Therefore, beliefs must be challenged deliberately for changes to occur, as Pajares (1992) argues. He also explains that beliefs will tend to change when they are proved to be unsatisfactory and this will not occur unless they are challenged. In fact, as beliefs are static in nature, they remain difficult to change even when they are challenged. Here is Pajares’ explanation about why beliefs are resistant to change:
“[Beliefs] help individuals to identify with one another and form groups and social systems. On a social and cultural level, they provide elements of structure, order, direction and shared values. From both a personal and socio/cultural perspective, belief systems reduce dissonance and confusion, even when dissonance is logically justified by the inconsistent beliefs one holds. This is one reason why they acquire emotional dimensions and resist change. People grow comfortable with their beliefs, and these beliefs become their “self” so that individuals come to be identified and understood by the very nature of the beliefs, the habits they own” (p. 317).
Nisbett and Ross (1980) advocate that beliefs influence a person’s perception and strongly affect the processing of new information therefore, the earlier a belief is integrated into a person's belief structure, it is more difficult to modify. Therefore, as previous beliefs become more and more strong, this results in what Nisbett and Ross (1980) call “the perseverance phenomena of theory maintenance”. Thus, it will be difficult to change teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning developed for the duration of their schooling.
Furthermore, it is more difficult to change beliefs which are more tightly interconnected and the more central they are with other beliefs (Woods, 1996). In this interconnected network
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of beliefs, teachers find it very difficult to change one belief without affecting the other beliefs. So for teachers to cultivate innovative practices and to leave deep-rooted and apparently successful practices, they will require to shift their beliefs and accept new ones.
Woods (1996) states that change in beliefs must be encouraged rather than mandated as this process may lead to disorientation and frustration as the belief systems are personal in nature.
Teachers need to be conscious of their own beliefs before they can be expected to change them (Crandall, 2000) as teachers can hold unconscious beliefs. Since teacher’s beliefs play a critical role in their profession, so it is important for teachers to understand their own beliefs, theories or philosophy (Williams & Burden, 1997). Williams and Burden claim teachers need to sustain their personal reflection process to be aware of their beliefs and understand how these beliefs affect their professional practices. They explain:
“Teachers’ beliefs about what learning is will affect everything they do in the classroom, whether these beliefs are implicit or explicit. Even if a teacher acts spontaneously or from habit, without thinking about the action, such actions are nevertheless prompted by a deep-rooted belief that may never have been articulated or made explicit. If the teacher-as-educator is one who is constantly re-evaluating in the light of new knowledge his or her beliefs about language, or about how language is learnt, or about education as a whole, then it is crucial that teachers first understand and articulate their own theoretical perspectives” (p. 56).
Teacher training programmes must help teachers to understand their beliefs so that they can use them to reflect on the teaching (Richards, 1996). Teachers can make connections between their beliefs, only when they are aware of such beliefs and routine practical. Thus, when changes arise, teachers can re-examine their beliefs to embrace new practices.
Instructional change can take place only by altering existing beliefs (Dwyer, Ringstaff &
Sandholtz, 1991). But as Nespor (1987) highlighted, this transformation is not just a consequence of abandoning current beliefs, but progressively changing them with those which are more appropriate. The dominated training paradigm about teacher learning where the school and teachers are not the central change agents must be changed to improve the professional development approach. It is only when teachers will be part of the goal-setting process that they will personally invest and motivate to participate in workshops and apply
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the learning materials in their classroom settings (Guskey, 1986). Guskey maintains that teachers must have the opportunity to establish goals for professional development.
2.5.7 Situating the conception of teacher beliefs
The original objective of research on teachers’ beliefs was to form psychological constructs that could be used to explain and provide a system to predict explanation of teachers’ practice differences (Abrami, Poulsen, & Chambers, 2004), and students’
outcomes (Muijs & Reynolds, 2002) and experiences (McAlpine, Eriks-Brophy, & Crago, 1996). Moreover, existing studies on teachers’ beliefs published in more than 700 articles conclude that there is an absence of cohesion and clear conception, and limited explanation of teachers’ beliefs (Fives & Buehl, 2012). Literature in the field claimed that it is difficult to define teachers’ beliefs (Johnson, 1994; Pajares, 1992). Leder and Forgasz (2002) added that it is difficult to have an accurate definition of beliefs as the latter cannot be observed directly and researchers have to refer to teachers’ statements. On the other hand, Fives and Buehl (2012) disagreed with this statement and concluded that authors have provided definitions for teachers’ beliefs but these definitions are inconsistent. With regard to previous studies, Thompson (1992) concentrated on quantitative studies of teachers’ beliefs related to mathematics, whereas Kagan (1992) reviewed longitudinal studies of pre-service and novice teachers. This demonstrates that more qualitative studies must be carried out regarding teachers’ beliefs to add knowledge to existing findings, even though some features of teachers’ beliefs have been agreed upon collaboratively (Fang, 1996; Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992; Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, & Pape, 2006).
The researcher has conducted an exploratory mixed-methods approach to explore and understand teachers’ beliefs about online PD learning in the Mauritian context. Beliefs are regularly conceptualised as understandings, evidence, or suggestions that are psychologically held and felt to be true (Zheng, 2009). They represent a dynamic filter which screens novel knowledge and experiences for meanings. Harvey (1986), pointed out that “a belief system is a set of conceptual representations which signify to its holder a reality or given the state of affairs of sufficient validity, truth or trustworthiness to warrant reliance upon it as a guide to personal thought and action” (p. 146). Pajares (1992) added that this belief system acts as a personal guide through which individuals define and understand the
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world and themselves. Van Driel, Bulte and Verloop, (2007) have characterised the nature of teacher beliefs in terms of affective, evaluative and episodic processes. Nespor (1987), added that beliefs are generated by the content of episodic memory which holds experiences, knowledge or episodes from cultural sources which play a significant role in judging and assessing data collected. This supports the assumption that teachers’ beliefs, which are a subset of the general belief system guide their planning, decision making, the way they engage in professional development activities, and their classroom practices. Teachers’
beliefs may behave as a filter to change (Yerrick, Parke, & Nugent, 1997). Therefore, teachers’ beliefs would influence their decision of whether to engage or not, and also the way teachers engage in online professional development. There is still confusion about belief and its relation to knowledge in current literature. The distinction between the two is still blurred in many teacher beliefs studies. The trend is not to treat belief and its relation to knowledge in isolation. Therefore, the same tendency will be followed. Borg (2003) has conceptualised teachers’ beliefs as “teacher cognition as teachers’ knowledge, theories, attitudes, images, assumptions, metaphors, conceptions, perspective about teaching, teachers, learning, students, subject matter, curricula, materials, instructional activities, and self” (p.
81). Verloop et al. (2001) stressed that it is hard to distinguish whether teachers are referring to their knowledge or belief during planning or decision making in their professions.
The concept of beliefs that will be used in this study is that beliefs refer to commitments, suppositions and ideologies and a truth condition is not required (Savasci- Acikalin, 2009). Teachers’ beliefs include beliefs about environment or content; self; content or knowledge; teaching approach and students; and specific teaching practices. Teachers’
beliefs are implicit (unaware) and explicit (conscious). The fact that teachers’ beliefs are implicit is a common view shared by researchers (for example, Kagan, 1992; Osisioma &
Moscovici, 2008). Teachers’ beliefs are guided by implicit beliefs which filter the teaching experiences interpretation with the latter being conscious. Nespor (1987) added that implicit beliefs are beyond the teachers’ control. Other researchers recognised that certain beliefs can be explicit to the teacher (for example Rimm-Kaufman, Storm, Sawyer, Pianta, & LaParo, 2006). Dewey (1986) claimed that beliefs need both intellectual and practical commitment.
This research studies teachers’ beliefs (behavioural, rational, conscious and unconscious) in response to or related to online professional development programmes
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designed to influence practices of in-service teachers, as beliefs affect one’s behaviour. The researcher exploredd teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and learning (considering programme duration, the content and delivery mode) as well as beliefs about effective ways to develop professionally. Finally, the researcher explores how such beliefs are related to OPD and also the factors that influence the beliefs of teachers about OPD as few research which explore OPD and its effectiveness has been carried out (Borko, Whitcomb, & Liston, 2009; Whitehouse, Breit, McCloskey, Ketelhut, & Dede, 2006). Also, a serious need for research in terms of availability and high-quality OPD programmes has been identified in the literature (Dede et al., 2009; Sprague, 2006). Furthermore, Rosenfeld and Rosenfeld (2008) have concluded in their study that teachers’ PD should be connected to teachers’
belief systems.
2.5.8 Nature of teachers’ beliefs
Being described as a “messy construct” by different researchers such as Hermans et al. (2008), in-service teachers’ beliefs are more profound as they have many years of experience in teaching, which may make it difficult to change (Fullan, 2007). Many studies which emphasise change in teachers’ beliefs draw upon Green’s (1971) work which described belief systems by explaining the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practice (Arvold & Albright, 1995; Becker & Pence, 1996; Cooney, Shealy, & Arvold, 1998;
Mewborn, 2000; Shealy, 1994). Green (1971) also claimed that conflicting beliefs are prevented as they are held by individuals or in isolated groups. These groups are likely to develop when beliefs are formed in different contexts. For example, a teacher might believe that he or she is not at ease in using an online professional development platform. The belief may perhaps be due to the negative experiences with such programmes and at the same time as a belief in him- or herself. The same teacher admits having the technological skill to upload or download materials through Facebook or Twitter, while in the theory of planned behaviour proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) the stress is on the context in which the beliefs occur as regards the aspects of place, action or behaviour, time and subject. Therefore, beliefs need to be described taking into consideration each of these aspects of context to predict behaviour (Beswick, 2003). Sullivan and Mousley (2001) recognise the significant influence of contextual constraints on the relation of beliefs and practice. Teachers, therefore,
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construct their beliefs based on their experiences which are situated in a context, as described by Hoyles (1992). Thus, beliefs are contextual in nature and not isolated units (Pajares, 1992).
Beswick (2005a) insisted that the connection nature of beliefs and practice is complex and subject to controversy. So the context in which teachers are practising shapes their beliefs, therefore changing one variable such as the site that is moving towards online professional development will change teachers’ beliefs about professional development programmes.
Cobb et al. (1990) contended changed practice leads to changed beliefs.