The Role of English Pre-Service Teachers' Beliefs About Teaching in Teacher Education Programs

This paper presents a review of studies on pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching. The purpose of the article is to show teacher educators the relevance of exploring such issue in the classroom. Pre-service teachers come into the teaching profession with beliefs about teaching; sometimes they are aware of them, other times they are not. The studies reviewed in this paper demonstrate that when teacher educators ascertain this principle, they clearly integrate it in their syllabi thus aiding pre-service teachers to acquire awareness of their entering beliefs about teaching and to experience changes in them so that explicit beliefs guide and inform the act of teaching. Teacher educators assist this process through reflection, course content, and learning activities, as well as by engaging in research activities.