The Central Role of Epistemological Beliefs in Teaching and Learning to Teach Academic Literacy

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Bilingual and Bicultural Teaching and Learning Around the World

Abstract

Acquiring academic literacy is a challenge to English learners worldwide. From a sociocultural perspective, learning difficulties are attributed to learners' epistemological beliefs that misalign with the literacy required at academic settings. In a recent study, we found that Arab learners' struggle in acquiring academic literacy in Israel can be strongly linked to Arab teachers' epistemological beliefs and how they were formed. Based on this finding, we claim that teaching and learning to teach should highlight learners' and teachers' epistemological beliefs and align them with the epistemology underlying the practices of the academic community. This claim is relevant for language education researchers and organizational stakeholders who can jointly shape teaching and teacher education in academically more beneficial ways.

Authors

• Roseanne Kheir Farraj, Max Stern Yezre'el Valley College, Israel

• Lily Orland-Barak, University of Haifa