Preservice Teachers

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Preservice Teachers Beliefs about
Intelligence and Instruction

• Kathleen Cauley, PhD
• Joseph Tadlock, M.Ed.
• VCU School of Education
• Paper presented at the MERC conference, March 13,
  2012

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Beliefs about Intelligence Two Mindsets

• Fixed mindset Intelligence is an immutable
  trait that leads people to demonstrate how much
  ability they have Entity view
• Failure means you arent smart try to arrange
  successes and avoid failure
• Growth mindset Intelligence is a capacity that
  can be modified and improved with effort and
  persistence Incremental view
• Failure isnt discouraging, its a challenge, an
  opportunity to learn

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Where Do The Mindsets Come From?

• Parents and Teachers
• Type of praise
• Type of criticism
• How talk about ability
• Standards used to evaluate Ss
• Willingness to help

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A Teachers Mindset Can Affect Instruction

• Teachers with an entity view of ability
• are less likely to create autonomy supportive
  environments (Leroy, Bressoux, Sarrazin,
  Trouilloud, 2007).
• may be less likely to help students,
• or may make decisions that enable students to
  demonstrate their ability such as grading on the
  curve or displaying highest grades,
• give ability praise

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The Objective

• Few studies have investigated inservice or
  preservice teachers intelligence beliefs (Dweck
  Master, 2005 Jones, Bryant, Snyder, Malone,
  2011).
• To determine the intelligence beliefs of
  preservice teachers and examine the relationship
  between their beliefs about intelligence and
  their agreement with particular instructional and
  motivational strategies.

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Participants
138 students in EDUS 301 classes 23 male and
77 female. 62 Caucasian, 19 African
American, 7 Asian, 4 Hispanic, and 7 other.
Of the 138, 45 planned to teach elementary
students, 6 middle school, 28 high school, and
20 didnt plan to teach. Only the 120
students who planned to teach were selected for
further study.
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Online survey had 4 sections

• Theories of intelligence 4 items from Dweck's
  (1999) theories of intelligence scale.
• Attitudes toward instructional practices
  developed from work by Dweck (1999) on strategies
  to support incremental beliefs.
• A rating scale regarding autonomy supportive
  instructional choices, developed from work by
  Reeve and Jang (2006) and Jang, Reeve, and Deci
  (2010).
• 4. Demographics gender, ethnicity, and level
  and content participants plan to teach.

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Findings

• On the Dweck scale, 83 of the preservice
  teachers indicated intelligence beliefs
  consistent with an incremental view.
• The table shows the percent agreement with each
  of the instructional strategies.

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Instructional Practices
Teachers should Incremental Beliefs Agree Entity Beliefs Agree
a. Display the work of students with the highest grades as examples to others 38.2 72.1
b. Provide opportunities for students to compete against one another 56.2 66.6
c. Keep everyone together with the same learning activities and assignments. 47.2 64.7
d. Insist that students redo assignments until they get it. 70.8 66.6
e. Avoid telling students the highest score and the average on tests. 38.7 45.5
f. When a student has an easy time with a task, apologize for assigning a task that wasnt challenging enough to learn from 18 33.3
g. Grade students on a curve 39.3 53
h. Praise capable students frequently with words like youre so smart or youre brilliant 40.5 44.4
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Findings Regarding Autonomy

• When a student gets stuck
• 99 said the teacher should offer a hint or
  suggestion
• When students get frustrated and complain
• 99 would empathize and acknowledge the students
  perspective
• When introducing a new concept
• 75 said students should be given enough time to
  figure it our in their own way
• When a student does well on a test
• 83 would tell the S I can tell that you really
  understand this.

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Conclusions

• While most preservice teachers appear to hold
  incremental beliefs about ability, not all do.
• Those who do have incremental beliefs frequently
  endorse instructional and motivational strategies
  that could engender entity beliefs in students
• Those of us in preservice education need to help
  our students understand the motivational effects
  of instructional techniques

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Conclusions

• To develop incremental beliefs in students, it is
  best to emphasize effort, persistence and
  developing ability and
• Minimize techniques in grading and instruction
  that compare students with one another, such as
  grading on the curve or displaying work with the
  highest grade, praising ability, etc.

13

• But I really think if you focus on their
  development, I think the winning will take care
  of itself.
• Shaka Smart, 3/6/2012 after winning the CAA
  championship.

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References
Blackwell, L., Trzesniewski, K. H., Dweck, C.
S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence
predict achievement across an adolescent
transition A longitudinal study and an
intervention. Child Development, 78(1),
246-263.   Dweck, C. (1999). Self Theories
Their role in motivation, personality, and
development. Philadelphia Taylor and
Francis.   Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset The new
psychology of success. New York Random
House.   Dweck, C. and Master, A. (2005).
Self-theories and motivation Their impact on
competence motivation and acquisition. In Al
Elliot and C. Dweck (Eds.) Handbook of competence
and Motivation (pp. 122-140). New York
Routledge.   Jang, H., Reeve, J., Deci, E.
(2010). Engaging students in learning
activities It is not autonomy support or
structure but autonomy support and structure.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3),
588-600.   Jones, B. D., Bryant, L. H., Snyder,
J. D., Malone, D. (April, 2011). Intelligence
Beliefs of Preservice and Inservice Teachers.
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
American Educational Research Association, New
Orleans, LA.   Leroy, N., Bressoux, P., Sarrazin,
P., Trouilloud, D. (2007). Impact of teachers
implicit theories and perceived pressures on the
establishment of an autonomy supportive climate.
European Journal of Psychology of Education,
22(4), 529-545.   Reeve, J. Jang, H. (2004).
What teachers say and do to support students
autonomy during a learning activity. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 98(1), 209-218.