Teachers' Thinking About Difficult-to-Teach Students

Abstract

We investigated teachers' decisions regarding difficult-to-teach students, their causal beliefs, and their sense of efficacy. Teachers were given a case study and asked to indicate (a) how the needs of the student might be met, (b) which suggestions they believed were effective, and (c) what they believed to be the cause of the student's difficulties. Results showed that teachers more often suggested non-teacher-based strategies than teacher-based ones and believed that few of the suggested strategies were effective. Teachers who made more teacher-based strategies had greater personal efficacy than did those who sought solutions elsewhere. Further, teachers tended to attribute the student's problem to home causes, and causal beliefs were found to relate to type of strategies offered.