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The place of teachers' beliefs in research on teacher thinking and decision making, and an alternative methodology

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Abstract

Recent research on teacher thinking and decision making is reviewed, together with the models that gave rise to this work, to show first that scant and insufficient attention has been given to the content of teachers' thinking, specifically their beliefs and principles, and second that because of this, the inferences made in these studies are flawed by assumptions, especially by the assumption that teachers and researchers share perceptions and so understand language identically.

An alternative methodology for acquiring an understanding of teachers' beliefs and principles is described and illustrated with a case study. This methodology is an adaptation of Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique.

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Munby, H. The place of teachers' beliefs in research on teacher thinking and decision making, and an alternative methodology. Instr Sci 11, 201–225 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00414280

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