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
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
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
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
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.
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.
Online survey had 4 sections
1. Theories of intelligence: 4 items from Dweck's (1999)
theories of intelligence scale.
2. Attitudes toward instructional practices: developed
from work by Dweck (1999) on strategies to support
incremental beliefs.
3. 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.
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.
Instructional Practices
Incremental
Beliefs
% Agree
38.2
72.1
56.2
66.6
c. Keep everyone together with the same learning activities 47.2
and assignments.
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 wasn’t 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
“you’re so smart” or “you’re brilliant”
40.5
44.4
Teachers should
a. Display the work of students with the highest grades as
examples to others
b. Provide opportunities for students to compete against
one another
Entity Beliefs
% Agree
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.
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
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.
“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.