Learning to Teach Social Studies: A Case Study of Belief Restructuring

Research has shown that outcomes of social studies teacher education are shaped by the interaction of prospective teachers' beliefs, the meanings they assign to methods course content, and their interpretations of social studies curriculum encountered in student teaching. Through observation, description, and analysis of two elementary teaching candidates' experience in social studies methods and student teaching, 1 have probed the interaction between program experience and existing beliefs. Margaret's case suggests that beliefs can facilitate professional growth if they are articulated as tools for reflection. Holly's story demonstrates that existing beliefs can represent obstacles to new conceptualizations of teaching. The cross-case analysis supports two generative hypotheses: (a) when similar messages issue from multiple sources in a teacher education program, the overlap enhances the influence of program ideas on prospective teachers' existing beliefs, and (b) the individual's willingness to consider change is a key variable in belief restructuring.