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Epistemology, self-regulation and challenge.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

For prospective teachers, the development of self-regulatory behaviors--those which embody an incremental framework--is vital. This study examines the self beliefs and academic behaviors of pre-service teachers. The results of this investigation suggest that high achieving pre-service teachers endorse more strongly held incremental views and are more likely to exhibit academic self-regulatory behaviors in the face of challenge than are their lower-achieving counterparts.

Introduction

A mastery-oriented motivational pattern is a key component of academic success. Such a perspective incorporates self-regulatory strategies towards confronting and overcoming task-related setbacks. For more than a decade, numerous research studies have lauded the effectiveness of this approach, which leads to both greater persistence and greater performance (e.g. Pintrich & Garcia, 1991). Unfortunately, even high achieving students often retreat in the face of challenges and obstacles. In spite of a substantial list of efficacy-building successes, many students quickly withdraw from difficult, high-level tasks. Why might this be so?

Dweck and her colleagues have introduced a framework which helps to explain this conundrum. In this model, self-beliefs and goals create a motivational framework which shapes the manner in which an individual will consider and approach various tasks (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Specifically, this theory identifies two opposing ways in which an individual may consider a personal attribute; from the perspective of an entity theorist, which holds that the attribute is relatively fixed, or that of an incremental theorist, who holds that the attribute is adaptable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck et. al., 1995, Hong et. al., 1999; Dweck, 2000). The adoption of either perspective holds important ramifications for academic self-regulation (Dweck, 2000).

Those who express views consistent with that of an entity theorist are likely to set different goals in achievement situations than those who embrace the perspective of an incremental theorist. In a study of college students' theories of intelligence, Hong and her colleagues (Hong et. al., 1998) discovered that students who hold a fixed view of intelligence (entity theorists) were more likely to express a performance goal orientation and less likely to exhibit effortful, self-regulatory behaviors in instances in which there was a threat of exposing their shortcomings than students with a malleable view of intelligence (incremental theorists). Since self-regulated behavior is predicated upon the strategic, goal-directed effort one puts forth in a given situation, entity theorists who are faced with complex tasks certainly face a higher level of risk for learned-helplessness and failure than do incremental theorists (Dweck, 2000).

Several previous efforts have explored the epistemological beliefs of pre-service and practicing classroom teachers. In a study of teacher education students in Hong Kong, Chan and Elliot (2004) suggested that classroom practices were driven by teacher beliefs about knowledge and intelligence. Chinese teacher-education students were most likely to endorse beliefs consistent with those of an incremental...

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