Teacher Beliefs

At the heart of teaching and learning are the beliefs, dispositions and attitudes that teachers hold regarding students, curriculum and the daily life of the classroom. Educator beliefs are highly influential on student success, as such beliefs guide teacher decision-making and instructional processes. It is believed that educators who possess particular teacher beliefs are high-impact educators who create ideal learning environments for all students—especially diverse learners. The work of John Hattie (Hattie, 2009; Hattie & Yates, 2014) influenced the adoption of the following 8 essential educator beliefs:

Belief in Self-Reflection

“I believe that my fundamental task is to reflectively evaluate the effectiveness of my teaching and learning on student learning and achievement success.”

Teachers must evaluate themselves as well as students, look at learning through the eyes of students to determine the impact.

Ask

How do I know that my teaching approach is working?

Do I share a common conception of progress with other teachers?

Belief in Teacher-As-Change-Agent

“I believe, as a change agent for improved teaching and learning, that I am responsible for student successes and failures.”

As change agents, teachers provide scaffolding, feedback, and guidance to help students understand and learn.

Say

All students can be challenged.

It’s all about strategies, never styles.

It is important to encourage help-seeking behaviors.

Belief in Multiple Ways of Learning
& Knowing

“I believe in deeply thinking about and identifying the learning processes of all students to inform my teaching practices.”

Teachers must be “adaptive learning experts” able to teach in multiple ways and model different ways of learning.

Ask

In what ways do students learn differently?

How can I best support the differences?

Belief in Meaningful Assessment

“I believe student assessment provides me with valuable feedback about my teaching.”

Colleagues can provide feedback. Like students, teachers need to know where they are going, how they will get there, and where they will go next.

Ask

Who and what did I teach well and who not so well?

Where are the gaps and strengths, what was achieved and what has still to be achieved?

Belief in Reciprocal Dialogue

“I believe students should be engaged in most of the talking and I should be engaged in most of the listening.”

All students benefit from dialogue, rather than monologue. Students need the opportunity to ask questions and clear up these misconceptions.

Ask

Do I truly listen to my students’ questions, ideas, struggles, strategies of learning, successes, interaction with peers, outputs, and views about teaching?

Belief in Challenging Curriculum

“I believe in providing a challenging curriculum where I hold and support high expectations for all students.”

Teachers plan how to engage students in the challenge of learning and go beyond just breaking a challenge into manageable bits.

Ask

Do I engage students in the challenge of learning?

Can students see the purposes of the challenges that are so critical to learning success?

Belief in Positive Relationships

“I believe I am responsible for facilitating positive relationships with students, staff and families, which are essential to effective teaching and learning processes.”

Teacher need to have a positive interpersonal
relationship with each student, and students need to feel the classroom environment is trustworthy, fair, and empathetic.

Ask

How can I create a high level of trust in the classroom?

Do my students feel safe to readily indicate that they do not understand?

Belief in Teacher-Parent Partnerships

“I believe that as I partner with parents, I must explicitly inform parents of the ‘language of learning’ to ensure their success in navigating school expectations.”

When parents understand the language of learning, they are better equipped to help their children.

Ask

How can I support parents to help their children attend and engage in learning?

Do parents understand learning rationale and success criteria?