The consequences of INSET

Abstract

Teachers attending short INSET courses are usually exposed to a great amount of new information and ideas. While this can be exciting at the time, the after-effects may be less salutary. This article describes one particular INSET course and the reactions of the participating teachers one year later. It suggests that very few of this ideas presented on the course were taken up in the way anticipated by the tutors, mainly due to the mediating effects of the participants' own beliefs about teaching and learning. Any INSET course which is seriously concerned with long-term change in teachers' practice will have to take these beliefs into account.