Teachers’ personal epistemological beliefs about students with disabilities as indicators of effective teaching practices

Abstract

Teachers’ epistemological beliefs, that is, their beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how it is learned, appear to be highly influential in their classroom practices. To date, the exploration of teachers’ epistemological beliefs has been complicated by philosophical and methodological disputes. A method is presented here for inferring the epistemological beliefs of elementary school general education teachers through their descriptions of their work with students with disabilities. Evidence to support the reliability of this method is also presented. Differences in teacher belief constructs are related to differences in instructional practices – a relationship which holds for instructional interactions with both individual students and the whole class, and which predicts instructional practices for students both with and without disabilities. We therefore speculate that differences in teachers’ beliefs about students with disabilities might be related to their larger epistemological theories about knowledge and learning. In speculating about the source of differences in beliefs and practice, it is notable that the normative school beliefs, that is, the prevailing beliefs in a school about teachers’ roles and responsibilities for students with disabilities, appear to influence the beliefs of individual teachers. The potential for differences in teachers’ beliefs and practices to influence student outcomes is also considered, with some preliminary evidence from student self‐concept data.

The differential effects of labelling: how do ‘dyslexia’ and ‘reading difficulties’ affect teachers’ beliefs

“…The findings also resonate with other studies (for instance those by Foroni & Rothbart, 2011;Jordan & Stanovich, 2003, 2004Rothbart, Davis-Stitt & Hill, 1997) showing how beliefs about the boundaries and inherent nature of categories may have 11/05/2015 14:56 Page 10 of 20 causal implications. The work of Jordan and colleagues in particular has demonstrated the interrelationship of teachers' beliefs about the nature of children's special educational needs and their preconceptions about being able to help certain groups of children.…”

“…The evidence that teachers' efficacy beliefs about 'reading difficulties' were significantly lower than for 'dyslexia' appears at first sight to be counter to what we had expected on the basis of Jordan et al's findings (Jordan & Stanovich, 2003, 2004. It is possible that this reflects a confounding of the terms 'reading difficulties' and 'learning difficulties' although the present study was unable to resolve this issue.…”

“…Haslam and colleagues have also suggested that certain features of a category may be associated with (or evoke) theories about the nature of the category that exclude consideration of other possibilities. They also suggest that essentialist beliefs are akin to causal attributions and it is, therefore, possible that beliefs about a specific category may be causally linked to beliefs about the implications of that category and highlight perceived differences between 'in-' and 'out-'group members (Haslam, Rothschild & Ernst, 2000. In line with the propositions offered by Jordan et al (2003Jordan et al ( , 2004, it seems plausible that people will adopt essentialist beliefs about disability in order to reduce uncertainty and personal responsibility. It has also been found that teachers who are uncertain about how best to respond to individual 11/05/2015 14:56…”

“…Teachers' beliefs about the essence of children's difficulties (for instance with literacy) may also influence their sense of professional responsibility for specific groups of children (Jordan & Stanovich, 2003, 2004Stanovich & Jordan, 1998). In order to help improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching, a primary concern is, therefore, to develop better understanding of the grounds for and operation of, teachers' efficacy beliefs in relation to children's literacy (Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011).…”

Becoming an Inclusive Educator: Applying Deleuze & Guattari to Teacher Education

“…Teachers often feel they do not have the qualifications and skills to take on the responsibility of educating some students, particularly those students who are working well below the year level expectations and those students they feel are inherently difficult to teach (Allan, 2006a;Loreman, Deppeler & Harvey, 2005;Westwood, 2008). Some teachers question whether the students with diverse learning needs are their responsibility (Jordan & Stanovich, 2003). Preservice teachers often undertake their professional experience with teachers who share these beliefs.…”