Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2014, 2, 52-57
Published Online November 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.211007
How to cite this paper: Potmesil, M., et al. (2014) Novice Teachers (in the Creating Process of) Forming Professional Career
Thinking and Teachers Beliefs. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 52-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2014.211007
Novice Teachers (in the Creating Process of)
Forming Professional Career Thinking and
Teachers Beliefs
Milon Potmesil, Stefan Chudy, Pavel Neumeister, Jitka Plischke, Richterova Bohdana
Olomouc Department, Faculty of Education, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Received Sep te mber 2014
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify a process of forming professional career thinking and
teachers beliefs. The process is creating on mapping approaches in upbringing in the process of
professional thinking of novice teachers. The primary objective of this study is to show methodo-
logical possibilities of mapping the process of forming professional career thinking and beliefs of
future teachers in the undergraduate training. Undergraduate training then, in relation to the na-
ture of the study, can be simply described as the process of transition from education to the sub-
jective theory of general formal representation of knowledge based on universally shared seman-
tic structure. The study is conducted with the participation of 5 (small focus group) novice teach-
ers on Czech Republic. Novice teachers write essays on the theme “Education process of my beliefs
after a one year work on school” and write report (free literacy form) on the questions: “What do
you think education is?” “Who participates in education?” “How does education work?” Then was
the report of analyses by Meaning Constitution Analyses (MCA) method and its software version
Minerva is based on a self-report of an examined person.
Keywords
Novice Teachers, Meaning Constitution Analyses (MCA), Teachers Beliefs, Metodological
Possibilities of Meaning Constitution Analyses (MCA), Teachers Professional Career
1. Introduction
Teacher education is one of the key problems of contemporary science education. There is a prevailing general
belief that especially the initial teacher training and education significantly affects the quality of education in
schools, where teachers work. A fundamental rethinking of teacher training after 1989, consisting in the imple-
mentation of performance-based approaches, brought into the Czech education system new general category of
competence-refers to the competence of pupils, the teacher’s competence. The idea behind this change is the
move from assessment of learning outcomes through adoption rates prescribed by the contents of the assessment
of professional competencies-specific performance criteria, specific performance [1]. Inconsistent definition of

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53
teacher professional competence, including lists of qualifications, teacher characteristics, skills, etc., T. Janik
summarizes in terms of the complex potentialities leading to successful “effective” materialization of the teach-
ing profession [1]. One of the key components of planes or forming part of the professional competence of
teachers is also teacher's implicit theories [2] or teacher beliefs. The process of formation and transformation of
subjective theories of teachers in the process of undergraduate teacher training as a specific set of knowledge (in
the narrower sense) are the key issue of the study. Our concept is based on the belief that theories are subjective
contents of the human world of meanings which an individual, in accordance with the rules of phenomenologi-
cal philosophy, forms the basis of the experience of this world. The majority concept of the subjective theories,
however, approaches to the concept of a human as a scientist and subjective theories similarly characterizes as
“scientific” theory of stages through systematic, argumentative structure or language formability [3]. On the
contrary, this attitude, of course, degrades the subjective theory as the antithesis to the scientific theory, and the
process of undergraduate preparation is then perceived as a shift from subjective theories to the scientific theory
or reconstruction of subjective theories in scientific theory.
2. Philosophical Approaches
Phenomenology offers an alternative view on the issue. Phenomenology cannot be seen as a philosophy or phi-
losophical school, but in accordance with its founder Edmund Husserl as an attempt to substantial revision of the
whole philosophy based on a thorough revision of the doubt and the relationship of the knower and recognizable
entities. Ivan Blecha [4] characterizes phenomenology as a specific way of looking at the world and as an at-
tempt to purify the consciousness from all interventions of objective reality. An important aspect of phenome-
nology is the systematic analysis of the basic structures of the lived experience of the world-the natural world
(Lebenswelt in German-the “natural world”) as the last basis which gives meaning to all other activities (from
the current understanding of the world to its scientific interpretations). The central thesis of phenomenology, i.e.
undetectability and unknowability of clean reality which is exempt from the subject, and the focus on the know-
ledge through experiencing, or experience of the subject can be transformed into specific categories, the so-
called phenomenological attitude. The phenomenological attitude is exploring things and phenomena not as the
things given, but as things which appear to us in a particular way. The primary and most important is just that
the things appear to us through the fact how important they are for us and our subjective sense in the life-world.
Within the phenomenological attitude it is necessary to follow three basic rules of research [5]. The rule of epoché-
disregarding of all own knowledge, prejudices, preconceptions. What matters in this field is bracketing of all
self-kno wledge and access to the new situation.
The rule of description-highlighting of the role of the researcher as a person who is describing rather than ex-
plaining. The researcher using his or her own explanations would put in his or her own subjective meanings to
the testimony of others. The rule of horizontalization-based on Husserl’s thesis that things appear to us in so
called horizons. This is due to the obligation of the researcher to perceive the individual data as equal, not try to
hierarchize. The phenomenological approach, whose general framework we have outlined, allows a change of
perspective and perception of exploration of subjective theories of education, and thus open up new areas for
research on the importance of subjective theories in the undergraduate teacher training. Instead of the traditional
allocation of the amount of subjective and scientific theories, which emphasize scientific theories, the pheno-
menological approach emphasizes the importance of subjective theories as a result of the experience of educa-
tion, as a product of the reflection of the content of education to the students’ personal subjective system of
teacher training courses. This fact also formulates the basic research question of the study.
How is the general theory of education in the form of formal ontology reflected in the natural world of the
teacher novice? It can be assumed that through the course of general education as part of undergraduate educa-
tion in the natural world the student’s basic educational categories in clearly formalized representation of the
concept based on accepted and shared meaning structure will be reflected. Simply said, it can be argued that the
student of education adopts the specific conceptual structure of the discipline. Or on the contrary, it can be stated
that he or she reconstructs this formalized representation based on his or her meanings, corresponding with the
natural world.
2.1. Formal Ontology of the Teacher’s World on the Theory of Education
Education as a social process is common to all companies and individuals. Through education reproduction and

M. Potmesil et al.
54
development and integration of the individual into it is ensured. Each company (globally), as well as each indi-
vidual (with a range on a specific group of people—e.g. while raising their own children) creates its own subjec-
tive theory of education. The starting point of these theories is a set of questions relating to the various actors in
the process of education. Answering these questions (e.g. adherence to one of the possible answers) is the basis
for building a personal or general theory of education as well as the diversity of the various theories. In order to
create an overview of the basic dilemmas theory of education is necessary to find a meta-theory of education,
the theory that describes all the major players in education-learning process. Through this meta-theory differ-
ences between theories of education can be described. A suitable meta-theory of the education system presents B.
Blížkovský [6]. The advantage of the system theory is the interdependence of the various participants in the sys-
tem, and emphasis on the internal dynamics, based on the dialectical relationship among these actors. The prin-
cipal actors in the system theory of B. Blížkovský are:
• subjects of education—who raises,
• objects of education—who is the addressee of education,
• aims of education—for what purposes, for what, why to raise,
• parenting resources—how, by which means to educate (actors, institutions, organizational forms, contents
and forms of education, educational resources, succession process, etc.),
• the terms of education–that external and internal conditions affecting the form of education, how processes
of education reflect changes in the environment of individual actors of education.
Processing of these issues, their empirical argumentation, creates specific scientific theories of education
which become the content of the curriculum of the undergraduate teacher training. The completed form is then
presented as sets of predetermined information within the introduction to the discipline of pedagogical sciences,
which have in Czech pedagogy concept called the general education (foundation of education or theory of edu-
cation). It is necessary to emphasize the crucial influence of the German classical pedagogy (Allgemeine Päda-
gogik of Johann Friedrich Herbart). General pedagogy is therefore traditionally conceived as the system peda-
gogy, as the central discipline with normative control on other disciplines of pedagogy, whose task is to carry
out the synthesis of knowledge, and generate the general theory of education [7]. The aim of this discipline is to
place a student of pedagogy on a specific content and semantic base, then to equip him of her with concepts,
which will be transferable within different contents of sciences on education. This conception of education can
best be termed as formal ontology. Although the original ontology is a philosophical term, characterizing the is-
sue of entity and being, it is currently preferred especially in the field of computer science as a formalized re-
presentation of knowledge designed for sharing and reusing. The principle of formal ontology in computer
science is therefore to create structures and tools of common share of recognized descriptions of individual enti-
ties [8]. Why do we use the term formal ontology in this study? The reason is that the concept of theory of edu-
cation within the undergraduate teacher training plays the role of formal ontology, especially in the following
areas:
-It is the formalized representation of knowledge intended for sharing;
-It is the shared terminology for a particular application sphere;
-It is the representation of concepts based on universally shared meaning structure and terminology of the
sphere.
3. Methodology of Research
Following the already introduced phenomenological approach, we chose phenomenology of meanings of the
Swedish author Roger Sages known as MCA (Meaning Constitution Analyses). The main benefit of this method
is the attention given to individuals creating their natural world through constituting of meanings. S age s ’s Mean-
ing Constitution Analyses method and its software version Minerva is based on a self-report of an examined
person. The research was conducted on a focus group: 5 novice teachers.
3.1. Course of Research
The instruction assignment was in accordance with the recommendations of R. Sages entered general, in order to
affect their answers the least. Therefore, as the entry of the self-reports students were entered a written task to
characterize education in their own words with accompanying questions: “What do you think education is?”

M. Potmesil et al.
55
“Who participates in education?” “How does education work?” The second step of the analysis was the division
of the text to meaning units. This step is an example of the application of Husserl’s principle of epoché where a
distribution via text on basic semantic unit retreats from the researcher’s own pre-understand ing.
Within the third step modalities of the meaning were determined. They were made for each semantic unit. The
modalities of meaning indicate a way of a specific creating of meaning by an individual. By stating of the mod-
alities, the knowing subject is separated from the recognized object. The recommended modalities according to
R. Sages are 1. Belief, 2. Funcion, 3. Time, 4. Affect, 5. Will, 6. Property, 7. Subject.
The first three steps of the research process of R. Sages are part of a complete analysis of the structure of
meaning-noema. Through the fourth step the Minerva program is used for the synthesis of the data received. As
the fourth step, R. Sages recommends to analyze partial intentions. In each meaning units, partial intentions are
divided to so-called entities (that what exists), and predicates (what is said about the entity). By this process the
very structure of meaning is achieved, since each partial intention forms part of the meaning expressed by the
respondent. It sets a given respondent’s pre-understanding of the phenomenon and its experience from which it
is based.
3.2. Results of Research
As part of the research we have collected testimonies of the respondents. Out of these respondents, for the sake
of a sample, 5 responses of the students were randomly selected. This testimony is presented. A detailed analysis
is included in this study. In the context of the synthesis, the summary results of processing statements on the ba-
sis of which the following interpretations are presented (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Modality chart (part of results from software).

M. Potmesil et al.
56
The system of using modalities presents the specific individual approach to the life-world and the way of un-
derstanding to the life-world. It shows how the respondents understand the world. It is also important to realize
that, all partial intentions considered of equal value in the beginning of the process of analyses. A partial inten-
tion contains part of the total meaning of the intentional object expressed in a way characteristic form the indi-
vidual. The meaning contained in the partial intention is called the entity, ant the way of expressing it, its predi-
cate. An entity is what appears as something that exists for the experiencing individual [9]. Here follows three
examples of the relationships between entities, predicates and modalities (Figure 2 and Figure 3).
Figure 2. Partial Intentions classified by entity.
Figure 3. Most frequented predicates related to the entity “Education”.

M. Potmesil et al.
57
4. Conclusion
The results show that the students after completion of the discipline general pedagogy partly change the mean-
ing of the general categories of educational processes. The main category, which construct the processes of
education are: education (in Czech výchova), child (in Czech dítě), self-cognition (sebepoznání), and authentic-
ity of human being. It also indicates what sort of more or less modified types and kinds of experiences the indi-
vidual is moving toward (the future dimension of education). Most entities are expressed in a signified function
modality, implying that their concern something abstract. The entity “education” is mentioned in a perceptive
Functioned modality. Every entity is expressed in a present time, except “meaning of education” which seems to
be “change”. The change is something taking place in the continuous. The group of complete noema taken to-
gether constitutes the life-world of subject connected to the process of education.
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Acknowledgements
Internal grant of PDF UP: From subjective implicit theories of education to teaching knowledge. The process of
constitution of a cognitive framework sciences education in the national and international context.
IGA PdF 2014004: Mapping approaches to describe fragments and constructs training for new teachers at Fa-
culty of Education on UP in Olomouc.
The VOICE of European Teachers (VOICES), 526613-LLP-2012-NL-Comeni us —CNW .
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