Abstract :
As part of a larger scale research on teachers’ beliefs and practices, the present study examined the categories of pedagogical beliefs of novice and experienced EFL teachers (gleaned from the administration of ‘Importance of Pedagogical Knowledge Scale’ (IPKS)) and their verbal reports through semi structured interviews and stimulated recall, and compared these categories to their practices which were examined through classroom observation. The goal was to explore the possible mismatches between novice and experienced teachers’ beliefs (TB) and practices in relation to classroom management and organization, language assessment, motivation, and teachers’ knowledge including, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, involving eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method around common themes and categories, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers’ beliefs; the same categories were then compared with teachersʹ practices. To ensure the validity of the results, multiple data sources were used to triangulate the data. The results of the study showed that the pedagogical beliefs of novice and experienced teachers were represented differently in their practices, and except for teachers’ content knowledge there were mismatches between their beliefs and practices considering the other major categories.
