SPA615 – Teaching Reading Skills

Teacher: Mr.Huân

Student: Lê Ngọc Ân

Student code: M1622002

Class: 01

Reflection Entries No.1 – Teacher’s beliefs

The decisions that teachers make can be influenced by various factors, one of which is
their belief. Understanding a teacher's beliefs, in my opinion, is unavoidably important.

On the one hand, it can be clearly seen that belief plays a vital role in our lives.
"Beliefs are the best indicators of the decisions individuals make throughout their lives" (M.
Frank, 1992). We make decisions mostly based on what we believe to be true or appropriate
at the time. In fact, what we know or the information we have does not really contribute to
our decision-making as much as the beliefs we have. In the education area, "The beliefs that
teachers hold influence their perceptions and judgement, which, in turn, affect their behavior
in the classroom." (M.Frank, 1992) I personally find this statement persuasive to a certain
degree. When the belief is major enough, people tend to ignore reality when they make
decisions. This is especially true of the teachers. For example, when the teachers believe that
their students are already familiar with the topics, they tend to give less instruction or
explanation; otherwise, if they believe that the topic is unknown by the students, they will
give further explanation to assure the students' understanding. To be honest, as a teacher of
English, I have found myself in such situations from time to time. I usually posed more
questions on the topics that I believed my students already knew, limited questioning on
strange topics to avoid my students' confusion, and delivered more information instead.

On the other hand, "beliefs strongly influence perception, but they can be an
unreliable guide to the nature of reality." (M. Frank, 1992) Beliefs can act as double-edge
swords. Beliefs can be used as a suggestion for predicting how a teacher behaves or makes
decisions in the classroom; they can take us away from reality. It is a painful fact that reality
can be very different from what we believe. As teachers, I think that we should be very
careful with our beliefs. We should not depend too much on our beliefs but forget to take
reality seriously in making decisions, judging our students, and planning our lessons. We
have the right to believe that a student might be very lazy normally, but we should not ignore
giving him an opportunity to take part in the lessons. There could be a possibility that he does
well this time, and we realize that our beliefs can be wrong. Therefore, it is vitally important
to carefully consider and reconsider our beliefs before we make any decisions. Otherwise, our
beliefs can lead us to make inappropriate ones.

Building proper beliefs is crucial, especially for teachers. Teachers are the ones who
not only provide students with knowledge but are also responsible for educating students. If
we hold incorrect beliefs about our students, our lives, and our teaching styles, we can lead
our students to failure in school and life. For example, if we believe that our teaching
methods are totally effective and we ignore the fact that most students do not enjoy learning
that way, they may lose interest in learning. When we are too intolerant with our beliefs, we
can be blinded to reality. We should be ready for changing our perception because things
around us always change. As a teacher, I understand that my beliefs can strongly influence
my decisions making, which can affect my students’ outcome, so I should be very cautious
with the beliefs I hold. In most circumstances, “knowledge should be a priority in making
decisions”. Therefore, I believe that we should make decisions according to the truth rather
than the belief.

In conclusion, there is a strong relationship between teachers' beliefs and their

planning, instructional decisions, and classroom practices. Beliefs are good guides for our
actions and behaviors, but they can lead us away from reality at the same time, so we should
be careful about our beliefs.