Chinese student teachers’ beliefs and the role of teaching experiences in the development of their beliefs

Abstract

In this study, eight Chinese student teachers' beliefs and the role of teaching experiences in their belief development were explored using qualitative approaches. Within- and cross-case content analyses indicate that, first, most student teachers held both pupil- and teacher-centred beliefs, and some of these beliefs contradicted each other. Second, three types of processes were identified describing the role of teaching experiences in student teachers' belief development: belief confirmation, belief change and belief elicitation. Most often, experiences confirmed student teachers’ teacher-centred beliefs, which resulted in all of the student teachers in our study being more teacher-centred after their internships.