Teacher Cognition

professional-developmentteacher cognitionteacher beliefsteacher knowledgeteacher thinking

Teacher cognition refers to the unobservable dimension of teaching — what teachers know, believe, and think, and how these mental constructs shape their classroom decisions and practices. It is the study of the mental lives of teachers: their knowledge systems, belief structures, attitudes, assumptions, and the thinking processes that guide what they do before, during, and after lessons.

Borg (2003, p. 81) defines teacher cognition as "the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching — what teachers know, believe, and think." His landmark review established teacher cognition as a major research area in language teaching, demonstrating that understanding why teachers teach the way they do requires understanding what goes on in their minds, not just observing their behaviour.

Why It Matters

Teachers are not delivery mechanisms for methods and materials. Every instructional decision — from which errors to correct, to how long to wait after asking a question, to whether to follow the textbook — is filtered through the teacher's personal system of knowledge and beliefs. Two teachers given the same lesson plan, the same materials, and the same students will teach very differently because of their different cognitions.

This has profound implications:

Teacher education that ignores existing beliefs is unlikely to change practice
Curriculum innovation that conflicts with teacher beliefs will be resisted or superficially adopted
Classroom Observation alone cannot explain teaching — the reasons behind actions are cognitive
Reflective Practice works precisely because it surfaces and examines teacher cognition

Borg's Framework

Borg (2003, 2006) identified three main influences on teacher cognition and its relationship to practice:

1. Prior Language Learning Experience (Schooling)

Teachers' own experiences as language learners profoundly shape their beliefs about effective teaching. Lortie (1975) called this the "apprenticeship of observation" — by the time someone enters teacher education, they have spent thousands of hours watching teachers, forming deep (often unconscious) beliefs about what good teaching looks like.

These prior beliefs are:

Formed early — from primary school onwards
Deeply held — resistant to change
Often implicit — teachers may not be consciously aware of them
Powerful — they filter how new knowledge from training is interpreted

2. Teacher Education (Professional Coursework)

Teacher education programmes (CELTA, DELTA, MA TESOL) aim to develop and modify teacher cognition. Research shows:

Short courses (e.g., CELTA) can shift knowledge but may not deeply change beliefs
Longer programmes (e.g., MA) are more likely to produce lasting cognitive change
The practicum (teaching practice) is the most powerful component — but its impact depends on the quality of mentoring and reflection
Prior beliefs filter new input — trainees accept what fits their existing cognitions and resist what contradicts them

3. Classroom Practice (Contextual Factors)

The relationship between cognition and practice is not straightforward. Teachers' stated beliefs and their actual classroom behaviour often diverge — the belief-practice gap. Contextual factors that create this gap include:

Factor	How it constrains
Institutional requirements	Prescribed textbooks, syllabi, or exam prep override personal beliefs
Student expectations	Learners may resist approaches the teacher believes in (e.g., communicative teaching in exam-focused cultures)
Time pressure	Teachers default to familiar routines when under time pressure
Class size	Large classes make some believed-in practices (e.g., pair work, individual feedback) impractical
Resources	Lack of materials or technology limits what teachers can do
Testing culture	High-stakes exams push teachers toward test preparation regardless of beliefs about good pedagogy

Key Research Findings

Finding	Source
Teachers' prior learning experiences are the most powerful influence on their initial cognitions	Borg (2003); Lortie (1975)
Teacher education can change knowledge but changing deep beliefs requires sustained engagement	Borg (2006); Freeman & Johnson (1998)
Grammar teaching is the most researched area of teacher cognition in ELT	Borg (2003, 2006)
Teachers' grammatical knowledge often has significant gaps, which affects their confidence and practice	Andrews (2003); Borg (2001)
Experienced teachers' cognitions are more complex, interconnected, and context-sensitive than novices'	Tsui (2003)
The belief-practice gap is universal — all teachers experience some mismatch	Basturkmen et al. (2004); Phipps & Borg (2009)

Implications for Teacher Development

Understanding teacher cognition transforms how we approach professional development:

Surface existing beliefs first — before introducing new methods, explore what teachers already think and believe. Ignoring this is why many workshops have no lasting impact
Create cognitive conflict — present evidence or experiences that challenge existing beliefs, prompting reconsideration
Allow time for integration — deep cognitive change is slow; one-off training sessions change behaviour temporarily but not cognition
Use reflective practice — structured reflection helps teachers become aware of their own cognitions and the gaps between beliefs and practice
Observation with discussion — post-observation conversations that explore why a teacher made certain decisions are more developmental than feedback focused only on what happened
Action Research — systematic inquiry into one's own practice surfaces and tests beliefs against evidence

Connection to the Cambridge Framework

The Cambridge English Teaching Framework implicitly addresses teacher cognition through its descriptors for self-awareness and reflection. At the Expert stage, teachers are expected to be "highly aware of own beliefs" and able to "recognise where there is a mismatch between their own beliefs and good practice" — this is essentially the ability to examine one's own cognitions critically.

Key References

Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109.
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher Cognition and Language Education: Research and Practice. Continuum.
Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. University of Chicago Press.
Freeman, D. & Johnson, K. E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 397–417.
Andrews, S. (2003). Teacher language awareness and the professional knowledge base of the L2 teacher. Language Awareness, 12(2), 81–95.
Tsui, A. B. M. (2003). Understanding Expertise in Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Phipps, S. & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions between teachers' grammar teaching beliefs and practices. System, 37(3), 380–390.
Basturkmen, H., Loewen, S. & Ellis, R. (2004). Teachers' stated beliefs about incidental focus on form and their classroom practices. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25(2), 243–272.