Abstract:
Teacher cognition has emerged as an important concept in teachers’ professional
thinking and practices. It encompasses teachers’ beliefs formed through prior learning
experiences, educational experiences, knowledge, assumptions about learning and
teaching, decisions, course planning and classroom practices (Borg, 2006). This thesis
is based on a study which aimed at examining higher secondary level English
language teachers’ beliefs about English language teaching and the extent to which
these beliefs affect their classroom practices. The study also investigated differences,
if any, between government and private college teachers.
Research was carried out through an interpretivist paradigm using a mixed methods
approach, i.e. both quantitative and qualitative. Data was collected from 50 teachers
through a questionnaire survey; 40 class observations and 20 interviews of 10
teachers; and narrative reflections of 5 teachers, all based in 14 colleges in Dhaka city.
The findings revealed a regular pattern of consistency between teachers’ beliefs and
practices. Their beliefs were based on the underlying features of educational and
personal experiences with a strong orientation towards examinations, the curriculum,
the school setting and environment, and their sense of self-efficacy. There were no
highly significant differences between the government and private college teachers.
The thesis then formulates an argument for the need to develop teacher education
programmes in order to engage with teachers’ in-built belief systems by incorporating
reflective practices in the programme methodology. Only then it might be possible to
draw out teachers’ ingrained beliefs, interact with them and use them as an anchor to
develop a teaching philosophy on which subsequent links can be made with the
content and applied knowledge provided in formal teacher development courses.
