These Kids Just Aren't Motivated to Read: The Influence of Preservice Teachers' Beliefs on Their Expectations, Instruction, and Evaluation of Struggling Readers

Abstract

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs of preservice teachers about teaching struggling readers. The study was concerned with participants' beliefs in the context of tutoring struggling readers in order to discover how these beliefs influenced the preservice teachers' expectations, instruction, and evaluations of these learners. The findings from this multiple case study suggest that preservice teachers may not believe they are capable of or responsible for teaching all of their students to read. The preservice teacher beliefs about teacher efficacy and responsibility influenced many teaching behaviors in the current study.

Keywords:

• expectations
• motivation
• preservice teachers
• preservice teacher beliefs
• struggling readers