DFI - Teaching Beliefs and Mindsets Survey
The Teaching Beliefs and Mindset Survey combines the short forms of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale and Grit Scale, as well as items from the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale.
- The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale assesses the extent to which teachers believe they can influence student engagement, instructional practice, and classroom management. Respondents rate themselves from 1 (nothing) to 9 (a great deal) on 12 statements, like “How much can you use a variety of assessment strategies?” (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).
- The Short Grit Scale assesses an individual’s tendency to persist towards long-term goals. Using a 1-5 scale, respondents rate whether a series of eight statements -- like “Setbacks don’t discourage me”-- are typical of them (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009).
- The Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale assesses how confident teacher-candidates are in their abilities to enact culturally responsive teaching practices. Candidates record a number from 0 (no confidence at all) to 100 (completely confident) in response to 26 statements like “Establish positive home-school relations” (Siawatu, 2007).
In the CIS Network, the survey is administered online to teacher-candidates at the start of their preparation program and then again at the start and end of their clinical experiences.
Evidence Base
The scales that make up the Teaching Beliefs and Mindsets Survey are supported by limited, yet promising, evidence suggesting they are valid and reliable measures. The emerging evidence base suggests that the Short Grit Scale has high levels of internal consistency, is relatively stable over time, and is predictive of fewer career changes among adults generally (Duckworth, et al., 2007). Grit was also found to be predictive of novice teacher retention and effectiveness in one study where grit scores were assigned based on resume review (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale also has high levels of internal consistency for both in-service and pre-service teachers (alpha=0.90) and moderate levels of construct validity, particularly with other measures of personal teaching efficacy (r=0.64, p<0.01) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). The Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy scale has robust theoretical underpinnings, and in one study was found to have high levels of internal consistency (alpha=0.98) (Siawatu, 2007). Additional evidence on the reliability and validity of these scales is needed, but emerging evidence suggests they are promising for assessing each construct.
Relevant Descriptive and Validity Research
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087-1101.
Duckworth, A.L, & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S).
Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166-174.
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 783-805.
Siawatu, K. O. (2007). Preservice teachers’ culturally responsive teaching self efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 7, 1086-1101.