Beliefs about teaching and learning (in general) are well established by the time (pre-service) teachers enter teacher education and start their educational careers. As a consequence, teacher beliefs tend to be relatively stable and resistant to change. This is particularly true for teachers with many years of teaching experience. In contrast, pre-service and novice teachers' beliefs seem less resistant to change. Moreover, limited pedagogical and content knowledge may hinder a change of teachers' beliefs (stability).
•
Teacher beliefs are part of larger belief systems. These systems contain beliefs about teaching and learning in general (e.g., conceptions of learning and beliefs about a range of topics such as the regulation of students' learning processes, goals of education, the nature of knowing and knowledge development, assessment, and so on) and domain-specific beliefs (e.g., beliefs about the nature of the subject, curricular goals, instructional strategies for teaching particular content, and so on) (organization).
•
Teacher beliefs play a key role in knowledge interpretation and cognitive monitoring. The processing of new information is mediated by these beliefs because they function as perceptual filters. Moreover, beliefs serve as mental exemplars for constructing and evaluating teachers' own teaching practices (functionality).