TEACHER'S BELIEFS AS A FACTOR OF INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS OF PUPIL

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to identify elemental composition of educational practice analysis scheme. This scheme allows to keep a coherent system of "teacher - pupil - subject matter" relationships during design of conditions for individual progress. The paper justifies teacher's beliefs to be an essential element of the analysis scheme. The theoretical basis of the paper are two positions. The first one is that the measure of individual progress of a pupil is degree of acquisition of the cultural ways of acting and thinking with accordance to the conception of Vygotsky (1983). The second one is the study by Kardanova et al. (2014), that shows that such construct as beliefs of teachers defines the specifics of their educational activities. We used the diagnostic tool << Delta >> to identify the dynamic characteristics of individual progress of pupils during the four years of study (from 6th to 9th grade). We have developed a questionnaire to reveal constructivist and traditionalist beliefs of teachers. The authors found that the teacher with the constructive beliefs ensures a larger-scale progress of pupils. This result proves the expediency to implement this construct into the analysis scheme of teacher's activities. The research results are applicable for both theoretical studies and for improving teachers' training system.