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Overview of the Role of teacher Beliefs in Science Education

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The Role of Science Teachers’ Beliefs in International Classrooms

Abstract

The monumental shift in cognitive science from a behaviorist theory of learning to a constructivist theory of learning, taking place from the late 1960s through the late 1980s, had a profound impact on scholars’ understanding of teaching and teacher thinking. The literature on teaching throughout the 1980s increasingly referred to teachers as creative and intelligent professionals who make decisions based on their own knowledge, beliefs and experiences (Richardson, 1996). Scholarly literature from the 1980s onward established the construct of teacher beliefs as a form of cognition that greatly influences what happens in classrooms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Science Education, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana State University, United States

    Carolyn S. Wallace

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  1. Carolyn S. Wallace
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Robert Evans

  2. University of Georgia, USA

    Julie Luft

  3. University of Toledo, USA

    Charlene Czerniak

  4. National Science Foundation, Arlington, USA

    Celestine Pea

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© 2014 Sense Publishers

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Wallace, C.S. (2014). Overview of the Role of teacher Beliefs in Science Education. In: Evans, R., Luft, J., Czerniak, C., Pea, C. (eds) The Role of Science Teachers’ Beliefs in International Classrooms. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-557-1_2

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