Teachers' and Students' Beliefs within a Deweyan Framework: Conflict and Influence

It has been suggested that because of teachers’ positions of authority in the classroom, they are seen as experts by students, and thus, may exert a strong influence on the development of students’ beliefs (Horwitz, 1988; Rubin, 1987; Wenden, 1987). It is believed that effective teaching and learning develop from the similarity between teachers’ and students’ beliefs (Kumaravadivelu, 1991). Nevertheless, students bring their own interpretations to the process and these may not coincide with the teachers’ thus resulting in a conflict or mismatch. If we want to understand classroom culture, we have to understand not only the harmony, but also the conflicts (Block, 1996).