Abstract

GARCIA T, Margarita  and  DE ROJAS, Ninoska R. EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONS AND EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES DERIVED FROM THE OPINIONS OF A GROUP OF TEACHERS FROM UPEL ABOUT TEACHING, LEARNING AND EVALUATION. Investigación y Postgrado [online]. 2003, vol.18, n.1, pp.11-21. ISSN 1316-0087.

Nowadays a great deal of educational research is devoted to determining what teachers think about pedagogical constructs and their relationship with their professional practice. There are research findings that support the conclusion that teachers’ conceptions are acquired prior to their practice and can be modified through experience, reflection and awareness of the limitations of theories on teaching, learning and evaluation. Since UPEL is an institution for teaching teachers, it was considered relevant and appropriate to research the following question: What are the epistemological conceptions and educational approaches that some teachers trained at this university use in their classes, determined on the basis of inferences elaborated from ideas expressed by educators in two questionnaires, (open and closed answer, considered to be complementary). From those conceptions sprang a set of conclusions and recommendations that might improve teacher’s performance. The group studied was comprised of 36 teachers from UPEL; they provided the information that underlay a better understanding of their ideas about teaching, learning and evaluation. It was analyzed from two perspectives: qualitative and quantitative. This was a descriptive research study. The findings showed the existence of four groups; three of them exhibited a coherent conception-practice relationship: empiricist-behaviorist, rationalistic-cognitive and relativistic-constructivist. The conceptions of the fourth group were not coherent with their practice. There was evidence of a weak professional identity. The results presented in this research may help build a better understanding of the conceptions teachers have and of their educational practice, for the improvement of teachers education programs and as a theoretical and methodological reference for further research in this area.

Keywords : teachers’ epistemological conceptions; teacher education; educational approaches.