His Behavior Makes Me So Angry: Teacher Education Students’ Mindsets and their Attributions of Classroom Behavior

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Classroom (Mis)management and the Ecologies of Place: The Role of Teachers in School Discipline

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore a connection between teacher education students’ mindset theories of intelligence (entity vs. incremental) and personality (fixed vs. malleable) about themselves (intrapersonal) and others (interpersonal), specifically students, on their student disciplinary decisions for common but disruptive classroom misbehaviors. This analysis found statistically significant relationships between fixed mindset beliefs and attributions of student behavior that resulted in feelings of frustration over sympathy for students with behavioral challenges. This research prompts questions around how the research on mindset beliefs, a popular psychology topic, is presented to teacher education students in teacher preparation programs, and if they are asked to explore what those beliefs mean when working with students and making decisions about student classroom behavior.

Author

• Nicole L. Lorenzetti, City College of New York - CUNY