... have an "unrealistic optimism" where they believe that they have the necessary attributes to be a successful teacher and will be able to solve the problems faced by classroom teachers. I see this attitude reflected almost everyday in my class, where the pre service teachers nonchalantly shrug things off and say "when I am a teacher... this wont be a problem at all for me". Yet when it comes to performing a demonstration in class or the like, they are all at sea. Dr Pajares draws a distinction between teachers who he calls "insiders" and doctors or lawyers who he calls "outsiders" he uses this distinction to explain why the process of belief change is so difficult. I found this premise fascinating. The distinction being that, outsiders are strangers, in a new environment, and so the process of accommodating new information and changing beliefs is a gradual one. Teachers as ...

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