Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs about Economics Knowledge and Teaching

This study aimed to explore pre-service teachers’ epistemological beliefs about economics, and their reported future teaching styles for economics using survey and interviewing methodologies. This study revealed that the pre-service teachers considered economics to be practical as well as academic. The academic aspect of economics was mutually related to traditional routine ways of teaching. The practical aspect of economics was connected to constructive ways of teaching. Pre-service teachers displayed different thoughts about the effectiveness of teaching for students; routine ways of teaching are effective for low learning ability students, while constructive ways of teaching are effective for high learning ability students. After reporting results, I make suggestions for improving teacher training in economics.