73 From Critic to Inspirer 3 grouped broadly into teacher- or content-centred versus student- or learning centred teaching beliefs.8,11,12 Central in a teacher-centred beliefs orientation is the focus of the academic towards knowledge transmission and the person of the academic and his/her teaching strategies, and in a student-centred teaching beliefs orientation towards the students’ conceptual understanding and the person of the students and their development.12 A student-centred beliefs orientation is widely regarded as more developed than a teacher-centred orientation.8,12 Academics holding a teacher-centred orientation are likely to use a lecturing approach, even in small group sessions, whereas those with a student-centred orientation will use more interactive teaching methods. A student-centred orientation focuses on enhancing the learning of the student, even when teaching content. A prevalence of academics with a student-centred orientation leads to a deeper approach to learning, while a teacher-centred orientation leads to a more surface approach to learning.8 Several factors, both contextual and personal, have been reported as being associated with teaching beliefs. Contextual factors described in the literature as being associated with teaching beliefs are level of the course,5 and discipline. The ‘hard’ disciplines,15 such as engineering or physics, are more often associated with a teacher-centred beliefs orientation, while in disciplines where attitudes and personal skills are more important, such as humanities or social sciences, student-centred orientations typically predominate.5,16-20 Other contextual factors reported are appreciation of teaching by the department,21 and the educational history and culture of the institute.22 A number of personal factors is associated with teaching beliefs. In some studies female teachers20,22,23 or experienced teachers24,25 are more likely to show a student-centred beliefs orientation, in another study this is not confirmed.26 Other personal factors reported are educational role (teaching role only versus combined with educational management/ development and/ or research) and type of educational task (lectures only versus mix).22 To better understand the variety of beliefs of individual teachers, several studies clustered teachers with similar beliefs into profiles.27-30 By clustering, one can group together similar and homogeneous subsamples of people and analyse the characteristics of those participants that are clustered into the same group.31
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