Abstract:

There has been substantial body of work looking at the importance of teacher beliefs in the area of teaching. Experts such as Keys (2005, 2007) and van Driel (2007) have cited the impact that teacher beliefs have on innovation and changes in curriculum. In this paper, we look at how a specific group of teachers view their students and what are some of the specific factors that they believe are important contributing factors to these students’ barriers to learning. This is important because the students in question are already struggling students who have been placed in the Learning Support Program (LSP); a program in the primary 1 and 2 classes which aims to help students level up with their mainstream peers. We also hope to understand how the teachers translate their beliefs into practice and how these practices and innovations can effectively help the students level up. The data collected was based on survey responses, classroom observations and interviews with the teachers of the LSP.

Keywords:

Teacher beliefs, barriers to learning, learning support.