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Teaching is unique in that unlike most other jobs, prospective teachers have had enormous exposure to the role through their own upbringing in education.

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It can be helpful when considering how belief affects teaching practice to understand broadly held global beliefs on the purpose of education: 1) to help students reach their full potential, 2) to contribute to a better society, 3) to help students become lifelong learners, and 4) to enhance individuality.

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Teachers' beliefs can have profound impact on students, such as in the case of cultural synchronization. In this instance, teacher's beliefs about student learning, culture, motives, and values do not align with the students' reality, creating a disconnect which serves as a barrier to their learning.

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This article makes note of a clear disconnect between current educational research and reality due to an overemphasis on studying white, middle class women teachers. This has codified faulty information in the pedagogical framework established as a guiding principle for what good teaching looks like.

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Teachers' beliefs about students often become reality. Expectations for students or a group of students based off implicit bias (either postive or negative) can cause teachers to either lean in or out of students, dramatically impacting their success.

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A major barrier to teachers adopting more reflective and dynamic practices is the dichotomous thinking between changing practices and leaning on past experience. These messages are often pushed simultaneously, leading to a perception that they are at odds with one another, when their integration is what is needed to best meet the needs of students.

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Cognitive dissonance is the catalyst which drives teachers to amend their ineffective practices, and takes place when teachers analyze and understand what is happening in their classroom.

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1. “...Educators who believe the self can be a valid source of knowing are likely to structure their classrooms in ways that emphasize students' contribution to the learning process.”

I learned that these types of educators are the ones who value learning in a collaborative setting that includes more than a teacher lecturing. Instead they may plan activities where students can be engaged through participation in the lesson like a socratic seminar where the debates and exchange of ideas can produce learning.

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2. “Irvine introduced the concept of cultural synchronization to describe how educators’ beliefs about certain student groups may be in conflict with the actual motives, values, and needs of those students.”

I learned about cultural synchronization and what that meant in relation to teaching. I knew that this was a common thing that occurs when a teacher may not relate to their students values and backgrounds but I didn’t have a word for it. It is important for an educator to recognize the cultural funds of knowledge within each class they teach. Every individual student brings their own unique experiences and we must think about our biased views in relation to these students so that our views are not skewed or in conflict.

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3. “In 1973 Rosenthal “derived four major types of teacher behaviors that appear to be associated with [teacher] expectancy effects. These are (1) climate is the teacher warm and encouraging to the pupil? (2) feedback does the teacher offer evaluative comments on the pupil's ongoing performance? (3) input how much does the teacher try to teach the child?(4) output how many opportunities does the teacher give the child to respond?”

I never thought about how our behaviors as a teacher can be categorized to affect our classroom expectations. I learned that these 4 types of behaviors: climate, feedback, input, and output can have a huge impact on the performance of our students and the atmosphere of the classroom. If one of these behaviors is lacking, then the students will most likely not produce successful results compared to a teacher who is aware of their role in each of these behaviors consistently.

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4. “Literature in the field of teacher education often suggests that the ideal conditions for belief change include:1) bringing pre-existing beliefs to consciousness, 2) creating conditions in which pre-existing beliefs break down, 3) helping educators to judge the conflict as challenging rather than threatening (Gregoire, 2003), and 4) providing educators with the necessary time to reflect on their beliefs and reconcile them with the field and their current teaching context (Davis, 2006)”

I learned these 4 steps for confronting our biases in the classroom. If we take this approach perhaps at the beginning, middle, and end of the year then we can figure out what views are holding us back from being the best teacher for our students. The first step makes sense to acknowledge our beliefs. The important step is the last one, which is that we must be patient with ourselves and allow time for reflection before we can truly address how our belief may be limiting out potential as educators.

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5. “Corno contends adaptive teaching involves monitoring which students are struggling and identifying the sources of the struggle. She argues that failures can have meaning and can transform teaching.”

I learned about adaptive teaching and how it connects to changing our beliefs about failure and its implications for our students’ learning. This reminds me of a past course where we learned about the significance of assessment and how it is valuable to constantly be assessing students informally and formally so that you can adjust your lesson plans as needed. If you give a test and a majority of students perform poorly you should take those scores and use them to plan how you will reteach that portion of the subject.

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6. “...that the beliefs that impact students are layered, multi-dimensional, sometimes implicit, and difficult to change.”

I learned that it is difficult to confront our inherent beliefs that impact the students in our classroom. These beliefs can stem from our own perspective of our role as an educator in the institution as well as how we were raised and lastly what society expects of us. We must take all of this into consideration when discussing our beliefs. As mentioned earlier the first step is bringing these beliefs forth to our consciousness and the last step to changing is giving ourselves time to reflect on the affects of our beliefs in relation to our students so that we can achieve a cultural synchronization between the two.

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7. “..they create spaces for their own growth as they identify and revise beliefs that do not serve them, their students, or their schools.”

I learned that you will probably have to keep revising your beliefs that no longer serve you throughout the entirety of your career as an educator. I feel this is especially true in regard to technology. We must adapt to technological advances and embrace them. On the other hand the article means that we must revise our beliefs as in its impact on our students. We cannot expect a certain student to perform better than another student based on how well their sibling performed the previous year. We must treat each student as an individual and shape our believes in cohesion with our students each and every day.