Attitudes and beliefs of university science professors toward the discipline of education

Abstract

Because professional development (PD) is about persuasion and influence, it makes sense to use an influence framework when trying to determine the reasons current university-level PD has been fairly ineffective in changing teacher practice to date. This research used the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to determine if university natural science professors' attitudes and beliefs toward the discipline of education (DE), a construct not recognized in the current literature, were positive or negative. The study also looked to discover some of the major influences on the participants' attitudes and beliefs toward DE. A method bricolage was used to analyze data from 10 participants in two separate phases in an attempt to establish a replicable Discourse Analysis methodology for analyzing attitudes and beliefs, and to investigate the major influences on the formation of these attitudes and beliefs. The findings indicate that in general the participants' had positive beliefs in and about DE with negative attitudes toward DE and that the majority of the participants' views of teaching were formed by a number of significant influences. However, the participants' attitudes and beliefs toward DE are complicated by several issues, the most prominent being that this cohort's ideas about DE are based upon their PD experiences, which were generally delivered by centers for teaching excellence (CTEs) or equivalent entities. This research needs to be extended to determine the generalizability of these findings, as well as to provide evidence-based research to support the re-thinking of how PD is delivered at the university level.