Abstract. Pre-service teachers rarely deal with problematic classroom situations in an evidence-informed way. One reason is that they often hold unfavourable beliefs about the utility of educational theories and evidence for competently dealing with classroom problems. Unfavourable beliefs about the utility of educational theories and evidence may weaken not only their actual use, but also already the selection of scientific information sources. Furthermore, beliefs about the utility of non-scientific theories and evidence might play a role in this process. We assessed N = 202 pre-service teachers' beliefs about the utility of educational research, subjective theories and anecdotal evidence in dealing with problematic classroom situations. They were presented with a case vignette of a fictitious teacher's unsuccessful attempts to deal with a problematic classroom situation and asked to provide feedback. Before giving feedback, participants could select up to four different information sources, namely (a) an educational theory, (b) the results of an empirical study, (c) a subjective theory, or (d) anecdotal evidence. Results showed that participants had significantly more positive beliefs about the utility of anecdotal evidence compared to educational research and subjective theories. Moreover, they selected educational theory significantly less often than any other source, and anecdotal evidence more frequently than educational theory and evidence. However, in students' feedback, educational theory was used as often as anecdotal evidence and significantly more often than educational evidence and subjective theories. Students' beliefs about the utility of educational theories and evidence were predictive for both selection and use of scientific sources, albeit with rather small effect sizes. The selection and use of non-scientific sources was not predicted by students' beliefs. Pre-service teacher education should not only target future teachers' skill and knowledge acquisition regarding evidence-informed teaching, but also help them develop more favourable beliefs about the utility of scientific theories and evidence.
This study used the Quality Talk and dialogic teaching approach with a group of secondary school teachers (N = 7) to train their facilitation of dialogical discussions by small groups of students. The study used video and audio analysis to assess the teachers’ observable behaviours during these discussions, before and after professional development; for example, types of Quality Talk questions asked. The study also used face‐to‐face interviews, held before and after the professional development, to investigate the teachers’ beliefs about learning through discussion. Results show that although the number of high‐quality questions from the teachers did not increase, the quality of the questions students asked of each other did improve, and resulted in extended periods of dialogic spells. Positive developments were found for teachers’ beliefs about the use of dialogue to foster deeper thinking with their secondary school‐aged students.
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