Relationships of New Teachers’ Beliefs and Instructional Practices: Comparisons Across Four Countries

Abstract

Drawing on large-scale international teachers’ data from Hungary, Korea, Norway, and Turkey in the Teaching and Learning International Survey in 2008 assessment, this study examined the relationships between new teachers’ beliefs about instruction (direct transmission and constructivist beliefs) and teaching practices (structured, student orientation, and enhanced activities) in the international contexts. The findings of this study showed that for new teachers from the four selected countries, their instructional practices were neither consistent nor aligned with their beliefs about instruction; thus, there were no consistent patterns of the relationship between teacher beliefs and their instructional practices in each country. The results were discussed from perspectives of two types of contexts: classroom and school contexts, and national and international contexts. This study adds to the understanding of relationships between teacher beliefs and instructional practices with international data sets.