Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Knowledge and Effective Teaching in Economics

Abstract

This study aimed to obtain an understanding of preservice teachers’ beliefs about economics, their beliefs about effective teaching, and the relationship between those beliefs. To this end, survey and interview methods were used. A total of 230 preservice social studies or middle school education teachers participated in the survey. Of these participants, nine were interviewed individually. The preservice teachers in this study believed that economics is a hard/soft-applied-life discipline based on Biglan’s classification. In teaching economics, the preservice teachers believed that traditional methods such as repetition, memorization, and modeling are effective for low-learning ability students, while instruction using tasks that require higher cognitive skills and self-regulation is more effective for high-learning ability students. This study found statistically significant correlations between one pedagogical belief factor and three epistemological belief factors. From the interviews, the preservice teachers demonstrated that the academic aspect of economics was mutually related to traditional/routine ways of teaching and using external resources. The practical aspect of economics was related to constructive ways of teaching, personal justification of knowledge, and using internal resources.