The Relationship Between Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Reading Comprehension Instruction

TLDR

The study investigates how teachers’ beliefs about reading‑comprehension instruction relate to their classroom practices. Researchers interviewed 39 fourth‑ to sixth‑grade teachers using an anthropological belief‑interview technique, predicted their instructional practices, and compared these predictions to classroom observations, including a case study of a teacher whose beliefs were changing. Results show that teachers’ beliefs are generally linked to their reading‑comprehension practices, and that belief changes can precede practice changes.

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a study designed to determine the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the teaching of reading comprehension and their classroom practices. The study, dealing with teachers from grades 4, 5, and 6, uses a beliefs interview technique borrowed from anthropology. Predictions about teaching practices were made from the belief interviews of 39 teachers and were related to practices observed in their classrooms. The study demonstrates that the beliefs of teachers in this sample relate to their classroom practices in the teaching of reading comprehension. A case study explores a situation in which the teacher’s beliefs did not relate to her practices. This case suggests that the teacher was in the process of changing beliefs and practices, but that the changes in beliefs were preceding changes in practices.