Literacy Teachers' Beliefs About Data Use at the Bookends of Elementary School

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: This We Believe: Teachers' Mind-Sets and Teaching Practice

Abstract

Multiple case analyses were used to explore 35 elementary teachers’ beliefs about data and data-use. Using ethnographic field methods, findings suggest that teachers’ beliefs served to filter, frame, and guide their data-use practices. Furthermore, the curricular and cultural context as well as teachers’ personal stories of knowledge about data-use, assessment, and literacy instruction affected their beliefs about data and data-use. Understanding how teachers’ beliefs filter, frame, and guide their data-informed decision making at the classroom level can be used to develop contextually rich professional development interventions for literacy teachers.

Authors

• Catherine M. Brighton, University of Virginia

• Nicole Barnes, Montclair State University

• Helenrose Fives, Montclair State University

• Tonya R. Moon, University of Virginia