tandfonline.com – Teachers’ personal espistemological beliefs and their conceptions of teaching and learning: A correlational study

Abstract

Epistemology has been investigated in different domains. In education, the epistemological beliefs have also been explored in terms of age, gender, fields of teaching, effect on learners’ reading comprehension, and learners’ learning strategies. Despite the plethora of studies on teachers’ epistemological beliefs, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ personal epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning need further investigation. The present was an attempt to explore the correlation between EFL teachers’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of teaching and learning. Therefore, a correlational research method was used. Two validated scales were used for to collect the data. The data were analyzed through running one-sample-t-test and Pearson correlation. Results showed that EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching and learning are positive and the correlation between the two variables is statistically significant (p < 0.05). The findings have implications for teachers and teacher educators.