Teaching beliefs of Chinese language teachers and their influence on curriculum implementation.

摘要

Many studies show that teacher beliefs strongly influence their instructional decisions, which in turn affect classroom practice and curriculum implementation. Studies also reveal many curriculum reforms in the past failed because teacher beliefs had been neglected in the design and implementation process.; The new secondary Chinese language curriculum implemented in 2002 in Hong Kong is of student-centred basis, and thus teachers are required to change their beliefs. This qualitative study aims at investigating teaching beliefs of Chinese language teachers and their influence on curriculum implementation. By examining teaching beliefs of teachers, light can be shed on the problems and prospect of curriculum implementation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. Twelve teachers were selected purposefully from three different types of secondary schools, namely band 1, 2 and 3; which represent different range of students' academic competency. In each type of school, two expert teachers and two novice teachers with a variety of educational backgrounds and rankings at school were selected.; This study finds out that there are underlying commonalities in beliefs among the twelve teachers. In their opinion, the conception of Chinese language is "wen dao he yi", that means the subject does not only aim at developing students' communication skills but also providing positive values. Nevertheless, teachers' beliefs on teaching could be divided into two main orientations, namely transmission and heuristics. Transmission-oriented teachers believe that they transmit knowledge and act as directors and disciplinarians; while students are recipient of knowledge. Their major concerns of teaching are reading and writing but listening and oral practices are of secondary importance; these four areas of language are unlikely integrated in teaching. On the contrary, the heuristics-oriented teachers favour two-way and interactive teaching approaches. They regularly arrange group activities for students in diversification, and let peers learn from each other. Therefore students can be active learners while teachers are facilitators. In their view, integrating reading, writing, listening and speaking in teaching can facilitate students' learning.; The results of this study indicate that teaching beliefs of teachers and their teaching behaviours are interrelated. It also highlights that the existing beliefs of transmission-oriented teachers are incongruent with the underlying philosophy of the new curriculum. This may hinder the implementation of the intended curriculum. But most of the beliefs held by the heuristics-oriented teachers are in line with the intended curriculum, which is likely to facilitate its successful implementation. The findings also have important implications for curriculum developers and teacher educators: curriculum implementation must be accompanied by continuous teacher development which fosters changes of beliefs and practices.