Old beliefs impede student teacher learning of reading instruction

This paper examines teacher trainees' perceptions of how reading should be taught. Questionnaires, concept maps, and written assignments show that trainees come with preconceptions about the teaching of reading that are grounded in their school experiences. Activities such as reading aloud and discussion of content, which formed part of their own training and which they judged to be adequate, were resistant to change. However, in the area of vocabulary instruction, which they perceived as poorly taught from their personal experience, they were keen to adopt suggestions. This paper ends with a suggestion to restructure the course, so that the focus is on bringing about cognitive change.