Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs about Intelligence and Instruction

1. 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

2. 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 aren’t 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 isn’t discouraging, it’s a challenge, an opportunity to learn

3. Where Do The Mindsets Come From? • Parents and Teachers • Type of praise • Type of criticism • How talk about ability • Standards used to evaluate S’s • Willingness to help

4. A Teacher’s 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

5. 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.

6. 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% didn’t plan to teach. Only the 120 students who planned to teach were selected for further study.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Instructional Practices

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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.