Connecting beliefs, noticing and differentiated teaching practices: a study among pre-service teachers and teachers

ABSTRACT

The ability of identifying decisive classroom situations such as inclusive instructions, named ‘noticing’, has been identified as a crucial skill in the context of creating inclusive classrooms. To our knowledge, the associations between differentiated teacher beliefs (i.e. growth mindset and ethical compass), noticing abilities, and implementation of differentiated teaching practices have not been empirically explored. This study aims to explore and contrast these associations by conducting two structural models within both pre-service teacher and in-service teacher contexts. The instruments consisted of self-reported questionnaires and a standardised video-based comparative judgement instrument. Results indicated that differentiated teachers’ beliefs predict teachers’ noticing of inclusive classroom situations. Regarding pre-service teachers, growth mindset beliefs also worked as filters on noticing inclusive instructions but not for ethical compass beliefs, as they are still inactive. Another important finding is that pre-service and in-service teachers’ ability to notice inclusive instructions did not function as mediator between differentiated beliefs and practices. It can be concluded that more empirical grounding on the connection between pre-service teachers’ and teachers’ noticing of inclusive classroom situations with actual classroom practices is needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• teacher and pre-service teacher beliefs
• teacher and pre-service teacher noticing
• differentiated instruction
• inclusive teaching practices

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Júlia Griful-Freixenet obtained her doctoral degree in 2020 at the Department of Educational Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, with a dissertation titled “Learning about Inclusive Education: Exploring the Entanglement between Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction”. Currently, Júlia is doing research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on (pre-service) teachers' beliefs and practices on inclusive education.

Wendelien Vantieghem obtained her doctoral degree in 2015 at the Department of Sociology of Ghent University, with a dissertation on the influence of gender norms on early adolescents' school functioning. Furthermore, Wendelien worked as research coordinator of the Potential-project at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her work focuses on the social inequalities based on socio-economic background, ethnicity, disability and gender in the Flemish educational system, as well as teachers' attitudes and competences with regard to diversity.

Esther Gheyssens obtained her doctoral degree at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2020, with a dissertation titled “Adopting Differentiated Instruction to Create Inclusive Classrooms”. She is affiliated as a teaching assistant at the Teacher Education Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and as a guest professor at the faculty of psychology and pedagogy of Ghent University. Within her research, Esther focuses on differentiated instruction, diversity in education, inclusive education and teacher education.

Katrien Struyven is an associate professor at Hasselt University (UHasselt) and at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Creating inclusive learning environments which address student diversity in a positive way are key to her work (differentiated instruction, PAL, assessment for learning, feedback). Katrien teaches instructional science courses to students in the Teacher Training Program (UHasselt), Bachelor of Science in Adult Education and the international Master of Educational Sciences (VUB).