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This study was conducted to identify whether the epistemological teacher-beliefs contributes towards the educational research practice in the classroom. This study involved 500 secondary schools teachers in the East Peninsular Malaysia whereby a mixed-method approach using a standard questionnaire and interview was used. In this study, a questionnaire on Teachers' Perception towards Epistemology (Knowledge) was adapted from Hofer & Pintrich (2002), and to measure Teachers' Perception towards Educational Research, researchers have adapted the questionnaires from Broekkamp & Van Hout-Wolters (2007). The findings from Pearson Correlations showed that there is a weak positive relationship but significant (r=0.26, p = 0.00), whereas multiple regression analysis showed that epistemological teacher-beliefs (ß=0.26, p<0.05) is a predictor for educational research. Furthermore, interview findings showed that the element of epistemological teacher-beliefs understanding and the support of school administrators is a contributing factor to the success of educational research in schools. It was recommended among others that the school leaders should continue to strengthen educational research practices among teachers as an effort to improve teaching quality and the effectiveness of the schools.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale of teacher beliefs related to mathematics, namely, beliefs about the nature of mathematics, mathematics teaching, and assessment in mathematics learning. A scale development study was used to achieve it. The draft scale consisted of 54 items in which 16 items related to beliefs about the nature of mathematics, 23 items related to beliefs about the teaching of mathematics, and 15 items related to beliefs about assessment in mathematics learning. At the first phase, 252 primary school teachers participated and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to evaluate the structure of the scale factor. There were two factors at each scale resulted from the analysis. At the second phase, 350 primary school teachers participated and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm the factors resulted from the EFA. The result of CFA indicated that the established model had sufficient fit indices. In addition, each factor had an adequate internal consistency coefficient, which was in the range of 0.715-0.787. Thus, this scale could be a satisfactory tool to assess teachers' mathematics-related beliefs. Subsequent studies could combine these three scales into an integrated scale, to simplify statistical analysis.

This study was conducted to identify whether the epistemological teacher-beliefs contributes towards the educational research practice in the classroom. This study involved 500 secondary schools teachers in the East Peninsular Malaysia whereby a mixed-method approach using a standard questionnaire and interview was used. In this study, a questionnaire on Teachers’ Perception towards Epistemology (Knowledge) was adapted from Hofer & Pintrich (2002), and to measure Teachers’ Perception towards Educational Research, researchers have adapted the questionnaires from Broekkamp & Van Hout-Wolters (2007). The findings from Pearson Correlations showed that there is a weak positive relationship but significant (r=.26, p = .00), whereas multiple regression analysis showed that epistemological teacher-beliefs (β=.26, p<.05) is a predictor for educational research. Furthermore, interview findings showed that the element of epistemological teacher-beliefs understanding and the support of school administrators is a contributing factor to the success of educational research in schools. It was recommended among others that the school leaders should continue to strengthen educational research practices among teachers as an effort to improve teaching quality and the effectiveness of the schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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