Perspectives on teaching: Conceptions of teaching and epistemological beliefs of university academics and students in different domains

Abstract

This study examines how academics and students from different disciplines perceive teaching and knowledge acquisition. University academics and students from both hard and soft disciplines completed the Domainspecific Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory. Results showed that academics held more student-/learning-centred and less teacher-/content-centred conceptions about teaching than students. Furthermore, prior findings on different beliefs about knowledge and teaching in different academic domains were confirmed for the entire sample. Finally, less sophisticated epistemological beliefs were associated positively with an information-transmission/teacher-centred and negatively with a student-/learning-centred view of good teaching. The findings are discussed against the background of effective teaching and the professionalization of university academics.

Out-of-Class Instruction in Higher Education – Impact of Approaches to Teaching and Discipline

“…Additional categories to typify disciplines have been stated by, for example, Kolb, Biglan, and Becher and Trowler (cited in Neumann, 2009), but the hard-soft dimension has proven to be the strongest in terms of explained variance (Neumann, 2009) and was therefore used in this study. The differences between soft and hard disciplines incorporate epistemological attributes that are explicitly showcased in the faculties' domain-specific epistemological beliefs: Taken to extremes, members of soft disciplines believe that knowledge is rather complex, interwoven, and subject to greater interpretation, whereas members of hard disciplines consider knowledge rather as discrete elements that are known with certainty (Hofer, 2000;Pä uler & Jucks, 2017). It has also been shown that academics' (and students') approaches to teaching differ depending on their academic discipline: characteristics of a student-focused approach, such as group work and critical thinking, are more prominent in the soft disciplines, whereas teacher-focused approaches, such as traditional lectures and opportunities to ask questions, are more salient in the hard disciplines (Pä uler & Jucks, 2017).…”

“…Muis et al, 2006;Neumann et al, 2002;Päuler & Jucks, 2017). Further, academics' epistemological beliefs have been shown to associate with their approaches to teaching: The teaching approaches of academics with more relativistic epistemological beliefs were associated positively with student/learning-oriented approaches and negatively with teacher/content-oriented approaches (Pä uler & Jucks, 2017;Roth & Weinstock, 2013). Therefore, academics from these different groups of disciplines are assumed to have different ways of behaving in relation to their knowledge and ideas (Lindblom-Ylä nne, Trigwell, Nevgi, & Ashwin, 2006), which shows in the data.…”

Creencias y prácticas curriculares de docentes chilenos de Física en Educación Secundaria

“…Los profesores presentan diversas y complejas formas de afrontar la dinámica que se les presenta en las clases, y lo hacen a través de conocimientos, habilidades y creencias, siendo estas últimas las que guían explícita e implícitamente sus prácticas (Rokeach, 1968;Shulman, 1987;Pajares, 1992;Päuler-Kuppinger y Jucks, 2017). Debe señalarse que la mayoría de los profesores no son conscientes de sus creencias, por lo que independientemente de su área de conocimiento, experiencia profesional y nivel de enseñanza terminan adoptando prácticas tradicionales (Azcárate y Cuesta, 2005).…”

“…Existe una creciente colección de investigaciones que argumentan que las creencias podrían ser estudiadas desde enfoques basados en las dificultades que afronta el profesor en su práctica como función de la cultura (Pasmanik y Cerón, 2005;Scarinci y Pacca, 2016;Xenofontos, 2018). Otras investigaciones se interesan por el estudio de las creencias desde el pensamiento cognitivo y su impacto en la conducta, considerando las dificultades que afrontan los profesores en la enseñanza de contenidos curriculares claves para las disciplinas (Fives y Buehl, 2008;Päuler-Kuppinger y Jucks, 2017;Ravanal, López-Cortés y Moreno, 2018). Otras se han interesado por la manera en que los docentes entienden los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, mientras que otras han tratado de describir y clasificar sus creencias (Rokeach, 1968;Bunting, 1984;Keys, 2007;Wang, Kao y Lin, 2010).…”

“…De este modo, su conocimiento se entenderá bajo la dependencia de constructos inherentes a su personalidad, los mismos que le permiten ordenar, explicar, interpretar, analizar y tomar decisiones (Shulman, 1987;Porlán, 2018). Diversos estudios han caracterizado este conocimiento a partir de las creencias de los docentes, para así comprender su evolución, organización y relación con la práctica (Sánchez y Valcárcel, 2000;Van Driel, Beijaard y Verloop, 2001;Song, Hannafin y Hilll, 2007;Keys, 2007;Yilmaz-Tuzun y Topcu, 2008;Bahcivan y Cobern, 2016;Päuler-Kuppinger y Jucks, 2017).…”