Synthesis of Review of Related Literature

Pedagogical beliefs, or the assumptions made by teachers about their students and

student learning and their roles and responsibilities as a teacher, are composed of

cognitive, affective, and behavioral component. The latter two components are activated

when action or decision is required. Epistemological belief or the belief regarding the

nature of knowledge, the nature of knowledge acquisition, and the modes of knowing

influence shaping of pedagogical beliefs, which in turn, affect instructional practices in

the classroom.

Many of the previous studies used belief inventories, which may or may not

correspond to the teachers beliefs relevant to their unique professional reality. Gaete,

Gomez, and Benavidez (2017) confirm that there has been overuse of self-report in the

study of beliefs in education. This research aimed at capturing that unique professional

reality in the Philippine setting thats why open-ended interviews and observation were

conducted.

Literature on teacher beliefs about the nature of learners centers on the teachers

expectations of their students. Teachers provide different learning opportunities and level

of standards depending on their expectations to the individual students. Expectations,

infludence by beliefs about students intelligence, may be fixed or growth oriented. The

growth mind-set (Dweck, 2010) is more beneficial because teachers with that mind-set

take steps in developing student potential and commend student effort. Negative

stereotype is a fixed mind-set because it is a belief certain abilities are not present in a
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certain group. According to Brophy (as cited in Williams, 2012), teachers are inclined to

be attentive to what they expect and less likely to notice what they do not expect.

Because teachers beliefs about students have strong impact on how they treat

students and the instructional decision they make about teaching and learning (Dray and

Delgado, 2008), it is deemed important by this researcher to explore the teachers beliefs

about the students in the ultimate goal to contribute to educational success in the public

schools in the Philippine setting.

Ability grouping has been found by Muir (2007) to be a widespread practice and

that includes Philippine public schools, which rank students and put the highest ranking

to the top sections. An interesting underlying question of this research is how the teacher

beliefs about their students affect their pedagogical beliefs, which are usually represented

by two contrasting paradigms, namely: 1) direct transmission beliefs or knowledge

transmission or teacher-centered teaching approach; and 2) contructivist beliefs or

knowledge construction or learner-centered teaching approach.

In its new K to 12 curriculum, DepEd has also promoted alternative assesment by

emphasizing performance-based assessment. Alternative assessment emphasize

documenting prior knowledge or ongoing performance to empower learning, which

forms formative assessment (Hamdam Alghamdi, 2013). In constrast, traditional

assessment techniques, such as multiple choice tests, fill-in the blanks, and matching

exercises, stress the accountability function for grading and sorting students based on

their summative performance. Alternative assessment is student-centered, while

traditional assessment is teacher-centered.

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With not much study on the pedagogical beliefs of public school teachers in the

Philippine setting, it is important to find out how the teachers pedagogical beliefs and

practices are influenced by the DepEds encouragement of the use of learner-centered

teaching approaches and alternative assessment.

Clark and Petersons (1986) cognitive model of teachers thought and action

served as the main framework used by this study in analyzing relationship between

teacher beliefs and practices. It postulates that the teachers thought processes and

practices influence each other. However, this study focused more on teachers planning,

theories and beliefs, teachers classroom behavior and interaction with students

classroom behavior, and constraints and opportunities in translating teachers beliefs to

practice.

Primarily, the study looked into points of consonance and dissonance between

beliefs and practice and the factors that facilitated or hindered translation of teachers

beliefs to practice. While many studies have supported interrelation between beliefs and

actions, some studies showed no consistent relationship between the two. Phipps and

Borg (as cited in Peercy, 2012) recommended that the underlying reasons of incongruent

relationship be explored in future researches and this was done by this study.

Dissonance between teachers beliefs and practices may give an insight on the limitations

that the teachers faced in implementing the recent reform in the educational system called

K to 12 curriculum. In effect, teaching practices may be improved.

Not much research on the beliefs about educational reform was found. Hoffman

and Seidel (2015), who reviewed 345 studies on teacher beliefs, support that there is
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conspicuous absence of empirical research concerning beliefs about the nature of

educational reform. This researcher attempted to do that by making the research

participants examine which among the principles in the reform they agreed and disagreed

to. It was hoped that the findings would provide DepEd with important information to

help determine curricula and program direction. It is unfortunate that most reform

processes have been designed without the input of teachers (Campos, 2005).

Van den Akker (in Elmas et al., 2014) state that in curriculum reform, three layers

must be penetrated: 1) the macro layer of the nation, society, and program; 2) the meso

layer of school; 3) and the micro layer of classrooms. (van den Akker in Elmas etal,

2014). According to Smith and Southerland (2007 in Elmas etal, 2014), teachers

perceptions of the curriculum may influence their reaction to it, thus the importance of

studying their perceptions on the curriculum. It is important to study the teachers

perception of the curriculum because it influences their reaction to it (Smith and

Southerland (in Elmas et al., 2014).

The need for teachers engagement in comprehensive professional development

(LoucksHorsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles in Elmas et al., 2014), characterized by in-

service training activities accompanied by technical support, in-place guidance,

reflection, monitoring, assessment, and feedback (Campos, 2005) has been proposed for

effective implementation of curriculum reform and for significant change to happen in

schools. Campos (2005) emphasizes that the professional development systems should

be contructed based on the significant experiences that exist in the school.