Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Pedagogical Beliefs in Primary Education

Abstract

Considerable research emphasized that pre-service teachers enter teacher education programs with beliefs about teaching and learning and relate their beliefs to the experiences they gained through their previous studies. Then, their pre-existed beliefs have been shaped through the teacher education. Therefore, understanding pre-service teachers’ pedagogical beliefs plays an important role in their professional development. The purpose of this research is to understand pre-service teachers’ pedagogical beliefs in primary education in Turkey. Pedagogical Beliefs Scale developed by the author is used in order to understand their pedagogical beliefs. Scale development included data from 553 pre-service teachers. To understand primary pre-service teachers' pedagogical beliefs, data gathered from 310 primary pre-service teachers. Findings revealed that majority of the pre-service teachers hold constructivist beliefs. Although there is no statistically significant difference among the primary pre-service teachers regarding the year they enrolled, statistically significant difference found in favour of female pre-service teachers. Findings of this research revealed that pre-service teachers hold compatible pedagogical beliefs with the demands of the primary curriculum in Turkey.