Schommer (1990) and Pajares (1992) claim that,
in order to protect their beliefs, people tend to use
memory and forgetfulness in biased encoding and
decoding processes that dictate the content of their
memory. In other words, beliefs shape not only
what people remember, but also how they remember,
including complete distortion of events in order
to strengthen their beliefs. Not surprisingly, in the
first moments of the interview, supervisors have
difficulties in remembering serious incidents of
behaviour problems they experienced as teachers,
and incidents experienced by their student teachers,
as well as what they have witnessed in school
corridors, yards and classes. No wonder, therefore,
that they are unaware of the needs of their students
in this field, and of the difficulties in professional
functioning that this lack of knowledge may cause
in the future. On the other hand, cooperating
teachers, who attended the feedback sessions, did
raise the issue of behaviour problems from time to
time. This did not happen frequently, but it was
significant in view of the total avoidance by supervisors.
The few comments did not bring about
any discussion on behaviour problems. The tendency
of supervisors to refrain from discussions on
behaviour problems was constant, avoiding any
encounter between their beliefs and reality.