The Influence of Teachers’ Mathematics Teaching Beliefs on their Teaching Practices in selected Kindergartens in Nanjing City, China

Abstract

Teaching belief is the viewpoint that teachers hold and believe in the teaching
work, teaching role, curriculum, students, learning and other related factors
in the teaching situation and teaching process. The scope covers teachers'
teaching practice experience and life experience, and guides teachers thinking
and behavior. On the one hand, all course decisions and teaching behaviors
of teachers in the teaching process are influenced by their teaching beliefs; on
the other hand, beliefs affecting teacher behavior are often hidden and
unrecognized. Studying on the teaching beliefs can give teachers the
opportunity to reflect on their own implicit beliefs, and teaching beliefs may
change accordingly, leading to improvements in teaching practice. Therefore,
teaching belief is a very important and valuable field of educational research.
This study aims to explore the impact of teaching belief on their classroom
teaching practices.The data of this study were collected through questionnaire
and interviews. The questionnaires were distributed to 300 teachers from the
14 randomly selected kindergartens in the urban Nanjing District. The
findings of this study will inform the design of professional development
approaches that will increase child-centered and inquiry-based teaching
approaches in early childhood classrooms in the Nanjing city of China.