Page 14 - Mini-Module 12

4. Challenges about teachers’ beliefs during knowledge construction

Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs have strong implications on the subject
matter orientation of an issue‐enquiry in Liberal Studies including what
they choose to teach and how they choose to teach it.

Teachers’ perception of teaching and learning

In guiding students in an issue‐enquiry, the teaching and learning
perceptions of many Chinese teachers in Hong Kong have to change
from “the delivery and transmission of knowledge to a constructivist
stance” (Prawat, 1992; Dijkstra, 1997; Brent & Sumara, 2003). The
constructivist theory is based on the premise that recognizes a student’s
value as thinker. Taking this stance, an important notion underpinning
the issue‐enquiry approach is the process‐oriented conception of
learning and teaching. This educational innovation thus requires
changes in terms of teachers’ conceptions on student learning and on
their own learning. Instead of trying to cover the curriculum content,
teachers’ central concern in terms of instructional design and delivery is
how to promote cognitive change in students. Besides, it focuses on
meaningful learning and deep understanding which enable students to
transfer what they have learnt to novel situations (Mayer, 1999). Prawat
(1992), however, posits that the transmission views of teaching and
absorptionist views of learning get in the way of teachers adopting a
constructivist approach in an issue‐enquiry. By the same token, Bolhuis
& Voeten (2004) assert that teachers’ learning conceptions are closely
connected to their teaching practices. Any inconsistency in between
would serve as impediments toward teacher knowledge construction in
applying the issue‐enquiry approach in Liberal Studies. Given the close
interrelationship between teachers’ learning conceptions and their
teaching practices, the challenge to Liberal Studies teachers would be
the conceptual change required, such that they would apply a
pedagogical approach consistent with the dynamic nature of knowledge
during the enquiry process.

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