The pedagogical beliefs of a teacher influence the attitudes of teachers to teaching, learning and learners, the subject matter and the role of the teacher.
TThe role and importance of beliefs have been studied in several key areas of interest to ELT professionals: the influence of teachers’ pedagogic beliefs on their classroom behaviours, for example, Woods’ (1996) study of ESL teachers in North America, and Borg’s (1998) case study of a practising EFL teacher’s beliefs about, and knowledge of, grammar teaching. The influence of teachers’ beliefs on both pre-service and in- service teacher education programmes has also been a focus of research, for example, that carried out by Richards and Pennington (in Richards 1998) writing on the impact of a BA degree on Hong Kong teachers’ first year of teaching, and by Lamb (1995) on the impact of an in-service teacher training programme in Indonesia.
Borg, M. (2001). Key concepts in ELT – teachers’ beliefs. ELT Journal, 55(2)