Key concepts in ELT. Teachers' beliefs

Abstract

The concept of belief, which has been a common feature of research papers in education for the past decade, has recently come into favour in ELT. Despite its popularity, there is as yet no consensus on meaning, and the concept has acquired a rather fuzzy usage. So, what are beliefs? The concept becomes clearer if we consider some common features of its definition: 1 The truth element—drawing on research in the philosophy of knowledge, a belief is a mental state which has as its content a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding it, although the individual may recognize that alternative beliefs may be held by others. This is one of the key di¤erences between belief and knowledge, in that knowledge must actually be true in some external sense¡. 2 The relationship between beliefs and behaviour—most definitions of belief propose that beliefs dispose or guide people’s thinking and action. 3 Conscious versus unconscious beliefs—on this point there is disagreement, with some maintaining that consciousness is inherent in the definition of belief, and others allowing for an individual to be conscious of some beliefs and unconscious of others. 4 Beliefs as value commitments—many definitions of belief recognize an evaluative aspect to the concept, and this is not surprising as the word itself originates from the Aryan word lubh, meaning ‘to like or to hold dear’, from which the word love also originates (OED 1989).