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Makale Özeti:
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Research on teachers’ professionalism is mainly conducted in the area of teachers’
professional knowledge. Only few studies are about teachers’ attitudes and beliefs and
how they influence teachers’ instructional behaviour as well as their students’ outcome,
whereas nearly no studies are on biology education. In a previous study, we identified
three prototype teachers with characteristic biology-specific beliefs (Neuhaus & Vogt,
2005). In the present study, we acquired socio-demographic data of 614 biology teachers
from all over Germany to investigate factors influencing their biology-specific beliefs.
In particular, the different types of teachers in terms of their beliefs were analysed with
regard to socio-demographic factors: age, teaching experience, second teaching subject
and school location (federal state, urban or rural). Data analysis revealed that teaching
experience correlated with teachers’ biology-specific beliefs only in the first five years
of teaching. The federal state in which a school is located was found to have a
significant influence on teachers’ beliefs. Furthermore, a strong relationship was found
between other subjects these biology teachers taught and their biology-specific beliefs.
Because teachers’ beliefs strongly affect their teaching, factors influencing these beliefs
should be considered when implementing educational innovations.
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