The Teacher Belief Q-Sort: A measure of teachers' priorities in relation to disciplinary practices, teaching practices, and beliefs about children
Section snippets
The Teacher Belief Q-Sort: a measure of teachers' priorities in relation to disciplinary practices, teaching practices, and beliefs about children
The present climate in education science presses for increased teacher accountability and use of scientifically based practices in schools, as described in No Child Left Behind (2001) legislation. As a result of this focus, there has been marked growth in research testing the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions in school environments. Researchers have increasingly focused on identifying effective interventions, understanding mechanisms by which they operate, and ascertaining for whom
Participants
The sample was comprised of 30 in-service teachers at schools implementing the RC Approach, 32 in-service teachers at comparison schools (schools not implementing the RC Approach), 61 pre-service elementary school teachers, and 74 pre-service middle or high school teachers.
One hundred forty in-service teachers (grades kindergarten through three) were recruited to participate in the Social and Academic Learning Study (SALS), a quasi-experimental study of the efficacy of the Responsive Classroom
Results
Results are described separately for the criterion and factor analytic methods.
Discussion
This study describes the development and use of the TBQ and produced three notable findings. First, this study advances the TBQ as a reliable and valid tool for the measurement of teachers' priorities among their beliefs. Second, RC teachers appear to hold a distinct set of practices for discipline and behavior management and classroom practices compared to the other three groups of teachers. Third, pre-service and in-service teachers appeared to hold different priorities and beliefs,
Acknowledgements
The work reported in this article was supported in part by the DuBarry Foundation. We thank Yu-Jen Chiu, Ellen Hench, and the administrator, principal, assistant principal, and teacher participants for their contributions.
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- 1
Current address: American Institute for Research, Washington, DC, United States.
- 2
Current address: Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, United States.