Universal Journal of Educational Research 11(4): 67-75, 2023 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2023.110401 Relationship between Student Teachers' Beliefs and Practices on Early Chinese Literacy Instruction Chunrong Sun 1 , Ka Lee Carrie Ho 2,* 1 School of Education, University of Saint Joseph, Estrada Marginal da Ilha Verde, 14-17, Macao, China 2 School of Education and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ, United Kingdom Received November 13, 2022; Revised March 17, 2023; Accepted April 7, 2023 Cite This Paper in the Following Citation Styles (a): [1] Chunrong Sun, Ka Lee Carrie Ho, "Relationship between Student Teachers' Beliefs and Practices on Early Chinese Literacy Instruction," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 67 - 75, 2023. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2023.110401. (b): Chunrong Sun, Ka Lee Carrie Ho (2023). Relationship between Student Teachers' Beliefs and Practices on Early Chinese Literacy Instruction. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 11(4), 67 - 75. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2023.110401. Copyright©2023 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract This study explores the relationship between student teachers' beliefs and practices in early Chinese literacy instruction. Semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, and document analysis were conducted with six student teachers during their teaching practices. Findings indicated that the student teachers believed explicitly teaching literacy skills and imperceptible acquisition of literacy abilities through communication and meaning-making processes are essential in Chinese early literacy learning. However, they mainly taught Chinese literacy skills in their practices, which means the student teachers still needed to practice what they preached fully. The study suggests that possible reasons for the discrepancies include 'direct teaching' and 'rote learning' might be much easier for student teachers to design and conduct a lesson. Student teachers have limited abilities and experiences in conducting an ideal lesson, and the kindergarten curriculum and onsite supervisors highly influenced their teaching practices. The findings from this study suggested that more operational activities (such as designing lesson plans and conducting micro-teaching) should be used during pre-service training. Furthermore, the communication of educational beliefs between the university supervisor and the onsite supervisor should be strengthened. Keywords Student Teachers, Beliefs and Practices, Chinese Literacy Instruction, Kindergarten 1. Introduction Most of what we do in teacher education seeks to initiate changes in student teachers' beliefs. The underlying hypothesis is that changes in student teachers' practices result from changes in their beliefs. However, studies on the relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices have continuously reported different degrees of consistency [1,2]. Some studies [3,4] proved that teachers' beliefs about teaching, learning and assessment influence or even determine their classroom practices and pedagogical decision-making. However, other studies [1,5] indicated that teachers' practices are only sometimes aligned with their beliefs. Compared with the in-conformity relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices, there seems to be more consistency between student teachers' beliefs and practices [6]. However, the limited number and diversity of research might be an essential factor that could explain such difference. Therefore, launching a study to explore and determine the relationship between student teachers' beliefs and practices was meaningful. The Context of the Study As one of the two official languages used in Macao, Chinese is an essential part of the infant education curricula (infant education in Macao refers to education provided for children aged 3-6 years old). Cantonese is the lingua franca in Macao. Therefore, teaching Chinese in most