Teaching teachers: An investigation of beliefs in teacher education students

Influenced by work on learner-centred education, teacher efficacy and teachers’ concerns, we conducted an investigation of the influence of 185 preservice teachers’ teacher efficacy and concerns on their learner-centred beliefs. Learner-centred beliefs were selected for the purposes of this study as the best indicator of future teaching actions because these preservice teachers had not yet entered the classroom or engaged in teaching practices. Preservice teacher efficacy and concerns, individually and collectively, significantly influenced learner-centred beliefs. These findings indicate that teacher education can facilitate the development of learner-centred beliefs by addressing these trainable characteristics and demonstrate the need to further explore both teacher efficacy and concerns as they relate to learner-centred education within teacher education programs.