I found this fascinating article on the Charles Stuart web site: As teachers we need to be aware that our own beliefs and levels of knowledge directly relate to the effectiveness of our lesson delivery and learning outcomes.

Teaching frequently involves solving ill-structured problems which are characterized by a large amount of information, open constraints and the absence of a single correct solution (Voss & Post, 1988). Nespor (1987) argued that the ill-structured nature of many of the problems encountered by teachers resulted in teachers' beliefs playing a major role in defining tasks and selecting strategies because, unlike other forms of knowledge, beliefs can be flexibly applied to new problems. He suggested that, rather than reflective and systematic study in the course of teacher education, it seemed "likely that some crucial experience or some particularly influential teacher produces a richly-detailed episodic memory which later serves the student as an inspiration and a template for his or her own teaching practices" (p. 320). Pajares (1992) found that there was a "strong relationship between teachers' educational beliefs and their planning, instructional decisions, and classroom practices" (p. 326) and that "educational beliefs of preservice teachers play a pivotal role in their acquisition and interpretation of knowledge and subsequent teaching behavior" (p. 328). Indeed, it seems that "beliefs are far more influential than knowledge in determining how individuals organize and define tasks and problems and are stronger predictors of behavior" (Pajares, 1992, p 311).

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). http://www.usq.edu.au/users/albion/papers/site99/1345.html   VIEWED 14th September 2010