A teacher strategic mindset predicts efficacious and effective teaching

Abstract

Efficacious, effective teaching markedly impacts students’ learning and academic achievement. How can we motivate teachers to feel efficacious, and hence teach effectively, amidst challenges? Our research introduced and tested the role of a ‘teacher strategic mindset’—an orientation towards construing teaching challenges as opportunities to step back and consider new, potentially more effective strategies. Teachers who had this strategic mindset felt more efficacious, and in turn, were more likely to report engaging in self-regulated behaviours and metacognition (Study 1). Moreover, instilling this teacher strategic mindset through a brief, online intervention causally increased teachers’ reported efficacy, and their intentions to engage in self-regulated behaviours and metacognition—specifically among those who had a growth mindset (Study 2). Beyond subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills, a teacher strategic mindset has practical value in motivating efficacious and thus effective teaching.

Keywords:

• Mindset
• teaching
• strategic mindset
• efficacy
• self-regulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Singapore MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant [R-581-000-232-592] and NUS-ALSET research seed grant [A-0001350-04-00] awarded to Patricia Chen. This work followed all ethical guidelines of the American Psychological Association and was approved by the ethics committee of the researchers’ university. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.