ABSTRACT
Research in beliefs and practices suggests a strong relationship between what a teacher believes and how teaching occurs in the classroom (Richardson, Anders, Tidwell and Lloyd, 1991). This relationship between beliefs and practice is an important one because it underscores the need for recognizing one’s own beliefs as an initial step in the active process of changing one’s practice (Fenstermacher, 1986; Richardson, 1990). This active process of change is driven by a desire to improve the practice of one’s own teaching, wherein the desire to ‘improve’ requires changing current practice. In order to understand how to change, one must look at what is being done and why (examining the beliefs underlying the practice being examined).
