teacher s cognition final

8/13/2019 Teacher s Cognition Final

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Teachers cognition

Abstract

The complex, subjective and subconscious system of teachers cognition sheds light over the

mental process that teachers reflect in their teaching-learning process and how this is defined

and influenced by the context, the teaching experience, the school, professional coursework. This

descriptive paper examines teachers cognition and helps to the conceptualization of it.


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Teacher cognition according to Borg (2003) is about what teachers think, know, believe

and do. It is a set of psychological construct that builds up our cognition, how our brains

synapses become into tangible and feasible actions and others impossible to see or notice, even

for who is producing this cognition. Teachers cognition term does not belong just to teachers,

everybody has cognition about every aspect of their lifes, but it is hard to know; beliefs are part

of humankind cognition, teacher cognition as we stated previously, and if we assume that,

according to Borg (2012; cited by Birello, 2012) it is hard to know teachers believes and it is

hard to know all about their cognition. Borg (ibid.) states that we can into a classroom, we can

observe behaviour, we can see what the teachers do, we can describe that; but we cant see

them.

Teachers beliefs are a powerful source of knowledge that gives teachers the voice to

articulate changes and attend to the diversity of the classroom. The heterogeneous classroom

where teachers have to react and focus on the process that each individual takes to achieve

learning, sheds light on the need to reflect on the real purpose of teaching. Focusing on the

multidimensionality and unpredictability of the classroom context is to recognize that

methodologies and theories need to attend to the person, respect the context, the culture and the

students learning background as connected issues that enhance the learning process.

Teachers cognition emerges as a complex system that reflects teachers knowledge and

skills about the language-teaching process. This is a dynamic process in which teachers are

constantly analyzing the dynamic of the classroom, the methods, the techniques and the activities

that prove to work well in different contexts. Teachers are professional capable of learning with

their students, research on the dynamics of the classroom and establish collaborative works with

peers or researchers; what is more a teacher who cares about the students learning process

reflects on her experience, questions her pedagogical work, establishes alliances that contribute

to the learning process of a specific context and give sense to learning.

Understanding teacher cognition is vital to understand the nature and role of teacher

education and educators. Knowing teachers conceptualizations of teaching, their beliefs and

how these translate to classroom instruction will provide teachers (us) with knowledge on how to

support our peers and, in the long term, improve classroom instruction. More importantly,

understanding teacher cognition ultimately leads to better learning in the classroom. When we

become aware of what we do in the classroom and what influences our teaching and decision-

making, we will know what we need to maintain or improve in our teaching.

According to Richards (1999), exploring teachers beliefs is to gain awareness of

teaching. The more elements of the teaching-learning dynamic that reveal themselves to us, the

more we want to explore; increasing awareness makes teachers curious to explore further,

leading again to fresh insights and new questions to explore (p.xiv)


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Borg (2012), who has investigated about this area of education, reveals that it is a

challenge to delve about teacherscognition. There are some methodologies that intend to reveal

teachers cognition. According to Larenas, & Alarcon & Vsquez & Prade, research study use the

autobiographical diary, semi-structured interview to uncover teachers role in the teaching and

learning process. They conclude that research on beliefs of teachers is becoming important

because there are theoretical and empirical reasons suggesting they affect the teaching practice.

[] participants readily express their beliefs about the various issues raised and recognized that

these beliefs are generated mainly from theory or from their own professional experience.

A Central aspect to understanding teacher cognition is articulating teacher beliefs.

Teachers beliefs systems influence what we do inside the classroom. These beliefs shape our

decision-making, and thus constitute what is called culture of teaching. To understand teachers

instructional practice and decision-making, it is necessary to study their beliefs and thinking

processes.

We all have a set of beliefs or beliefs systems learned during university and transferred

by university teachers or made up of information, attitudes, values, and expectations, theories,

and assumptions amassed from different origins. These beliefs influence our perceptions and

judgments, and become the lens through which we interpret and see events and make decisions.

Most of the time we teach in the same way we learned to teach.

Teachers' beliefs exist on many levels from global to personal and serve as overarching

frameworks for understanding and engaging with the world. They can be thought of as guiding

principles teachers' hold to be true that serve as lenses through which new experiences can be

understood. Teachers' beliefs may be formed without evidence and sometimes in the face of

contradictory evidence. They are a part of teachers' identities. Beliefs, and their influence, tend to

be unexamined by teachers because many are implicit, unarticulated, or unconscious.

Beliefs established early on in life are resistant to change even in the face of

contradictory evidence (Nisbett & Ross 1980).

Teachers' beliefs shape their professional performance in the classroom. However, the

study of teachers' beliefs is difficult because of the multi-dimensionality of beliefs and the

traditional boundaries drawn in educational psychology and teacher education about which

beliefs constitute a relevant subset. For instance, though teachers' beliefs as parents or as

members of a religious group matter, much of the literature has focused on the beliefs most

directly related to classroom practice.

According to, Veliz (Master program on English teaching lesson, December 7th

, 2013)

teacherscognition is at the back of our minds, it is hidden, in our mind and it is hard to reveal.

What is more, Veliz (Master program on English teaching lesson, December 7th

, 2013) states that

teacher cognition is mostly a subconscious process since we all have a perception of our reality,


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but when we ask teachers about what they do in their classes, they say what they do, and how

they do according with their perceptions, but when you go and observe them, you do not see

much about that.

As a subconscious process, according to Veliz (ibid.), teachers are conscious of thingsthat do not really happen, teachers construct mental images, about the things they do, about how

they correct, about the way they provide feedback and they are not necessarily true to life.

Veliz (ibid.) also advocates toKumaravadivelu who stated that asking to teachers about

their praxis, teachers report that their lessons are very communicative, but when they were

observed, that was not a fact.

Our praxis is informed by our cognition, our praxis is not what we say, it is what we do,

cognition is reflected by that and shaped by the contextual factors,Kumaravadivelu,appealed by

Veliz(ibid.) in his lecture, who analyzed to teacher about their lessons in relation of the CLT and

these were his findings:

Even teachers who are committed to CLT can fail to create opportunities for

genuine interaction in their classroom

In relation to this fact, Veliz (2013) reacts and states:

I dont know whether people, teacher are aware of what they do, and why they do whatthey do, teachers get their own perceptions, and their perception could be wrong,

sometime you can take conscious decisions, sometimes you make subconscious decisions,

but even if they are subconscious decisions, these decisions are informed by their

cognition. Cognition doesnt mean being aware, its not what you think

consciously,necessarily, it is what your beliefs are, you say something but you do

something else. (Master program on English teaching lesson, December 7th

, 2013)

Furthermore, teacherscognition is a complex process, teachers who produce these

cognitions, in this case about teaching English. Therefore, there would be a mismatch between

what they think and what they perceive about their actions. Hence, teachers cognition is built by

peoples beliefs. We, as teachers, are not aware of our own beliefs.

In relation with the last stance teachers cognition are in tension with our work as teachers,

Borg (2012) states that We all have tensions in our beliefs, we all have tensions between our

beliefs and our practices. It is not just a thing of be inconsistent between beliefs and actions or

incongruent, inconsequent between our words and action, we have to understand how the

different subsets of beliefs, part of our beliefs system, which are hard to uncover, coexist with

our work as teachers to be aware of what our work really is.

Many teacher react with great surprise when they meet students they taught 20 or 30

years before and they say, I loved when you smiled when you corrected me, that made me be a
https://www.google.cl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bkumaravadivelu.com%2F&ei=swSuUsKXCMfgsASY84HwCQ&usg=AFQjCNEKCbfMAscbVl31PdeMuNyw6jIqcw&sig2=BxZrvsoa7s0PJk6S4s6ksw&bvm=bv.57967247,d.cWchttps://www.google.cl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bkumaravadivelu.com%2F&ei=swSuUsKXCMfgsASY84HwCQ&usg=AFQjCNEKCbfMAscbVl31PdeMuNyw6jIqcw&sig2=BxZrvsoa7s0PJk6S4s6ksw&bvm=bv.57967247,d.cWchttps://www.google.cl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bkumaravadivelu.com%2F&ei=swSuUsKXCMfgsASY84HwCQ&usg=AFQjCNEKCbfMAscbVl31PdeMuNyw6jIqcw&sig2=BxZrvsoa7s0PJk6S4s6ksw&bvm=bv.57967247,d.cWchttps://www.google.cl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bkumaravadivelu.com%2F&ei=swSuUsKXCMfgsASY84HwCQ&usg=AFQjCNEKCbfMAscbVl31PdeMuNyw6jIqcw&sig2=BxZrvsoa7s0PJk6S4s6ksw&bvm=bv.57967247,d.cWc


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person with a good rapport with my colleagues. Or I loved when you talked to me about the life

in England with so much passion, now I was accepted to study there I always wanted to be there

because of you, or I remember how much you work with us, how much you made us to help our

classmate to learn, now I am a teacher. Probably the teacher was unconscious of the decisions he

or she made, he or she just did these things and never expected these products.

Elements that construct our teacher cognition are beliefs, knowledge, theories, attitudes,

assumptions, metaphors, perceptions, experiences as students, and about teaching, teachers

cognitions is shaped by the subject matter, curricula, materials, instructional activities, students,

interaction with teachers, and contextual factors.

Borg, (2003) explains how teacherscognition is informed and about what they, we, have

cognition of. Borg graphs it and says that what informs our teacher cognition are the schooling,

our experiences as students and school, our first steps that shapes teachers perceptions of initial

training, teachers schooling cannot be changed by our teachers cognition; Contextual factors,

which influence teachers practice and incongruence between cognition and practice may result.

Also Borg graphs that contextual factors cannot be changed and these contextual factors affect

classroom practice and teacher cognition; hence, Borg adds to his graph that there are 2 elements

that are affected by teacher cognition and receive feedback from them, these are professional

coursework and classroom practice; The professional coursework is informed by schooling and

by teacher cognition, the experiences that happened during the time teachers were students affect

the way they will take as professionals and feed their teacher cognition, also this factor,

professional coursework, shapes teacher cognition; the last element part of teacher cognition is

the classroom practice, this element is the interaction between contextual factors and teacher

cognition, also the classroom practice gives feedback to the teacher cognition in an unconscious

and conscious way.

As stated later on this piece of reaction, Borg on 2003 has the vision that teacher

cognition is affected by the contextual factors and also these contextual factors affect classroom

practice. Important peacemakers of our history have revealed that their beliefs and cognitions can

change contextual factors, it is a hard process, but it is possible. Mr. Mandella fought on defeat

the apartheid, he lived this situation, it was his context and he could change it.

Teacher cognition is like when someone loves its car and describe it to a friend, this

person says what he or she thinks about the model and brand, this living experiences this person

lived with this car creates and shapes a personal mental image; which can belong to the

description of a Roll Royce or a McLaren, but when his friend checks the car, it is far beyond

from the description but close to his own cognition. These aspects are hard to uncover which

make this cars ownerdescription hard to describe with other words.


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learning, for instance and they may not have been fully aware of other beliefs as when

researchers have turned up with a microphone and have asked them with a voice recorder: tell

me what your beliefs about x are they have struggled to put their thoughts into words. Thereby

and taken the ideas from the author it is recommendable to conduct more research in order to

find out and clarify personal teachers practical knowledge which are influenced by their

cognitions and beliefs which are not directly observable in the classroom, especially in state

school which are more representative of language classroom globally speaking, thus it will be

beneficial for the development of less teacher centered methodologies toward one centered on

the student. In addition, those teachers who attempt to teach through the communicative method

will not be diverged by students who cause disciplinary problems. To uncover teachers

cognitions the author suggests indirect strategies such as making the teacher drawing a picture of

an effective classroom or a good teacher or presenting a lesson plan as a stimuli rather than

asking directly what are your beliefs?.


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References

Borg, S. (2003) Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what

language teachers think, know, believe, and do,Language Teaching, Vol. 36, Issue 02, pp

81-109

Birello, M. (2012) Teacher Cognition and Language Teacher Education: Beliefs and

practice. A conversation with Simon Borg,Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning

Language & literature Vol. 5,No. 2, pp 88-94

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006) TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends,

TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 40, No. 1, pp 59-81

DIAZ LARENAS, Claudio et al . Beliefs of Chilean University English Teachers:

Uncovering Their Role in the Teaching and Learning Process.profile, Bogot, v. 15, n.

2, Dec. 2013 . Available from

. access on 15 Dec. 2013.

teacher s cognition final

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