Studying Teacher Cognition: The Interplay of Teacher Beliefs and Instructional Practice

This paper is concerned with examining a secondary school teacher’s teaching of literature in relation to her underlying cognition. In particular, it will show the interplay of her beliefs systems and her instructional practice. Starting from a brief discussion of what makes up a literature teacher’s beliefs systems, the paper describes one teacher-participant’s instructional practice and beliefs system seen from a particular framework then presents possible implications for teacher training. Part of a larger study based on what current research on teacher education reveals regarding the influences on and the formation of teachers’ instructional practice and their approach to instructional decision-making, the paper similarly subscribes to the idea that improvement of classroom instruction begins with understanding teachers’ conceptions and how these are translated into their classroom practice