Teacher Beliefs Survey
Please fill out the following information before you begin the survey. Thanks.
Last Name First Name
Middle Name Maiden Name
Your status: Student in ED1102-01 Student in ED1102-02 Student in ED1102-03 Student in ED1102-04 Student in ED1102-05 Student in ED1102-06 Student in ED1102-07 Student in ED1102-08 Student in SPE1101-01 Student in SPE1101-02
Gender: Female Male
Age: 25 & Younger 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51 & older Primary Program: Elementary Special Education Secondary Education Dual Elementary/Early Childhood Education Music Dual Elementary/Special Education Art Other
Semester in Program (for Undergraduate Student only): 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th other
Degree Earning: Bachelor's Master's Certification Only Master's & Certification
Previous Teaching Experience (equivalent to a full time year) none 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30+
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Survey
Directions: Throughout your teacher education program, you'll be encouraged to think about your beliefs about teaching and how you plan to teach. As you respond to this Teacher Belief's Survey, click on the button under each statement to indicate how much you disagree or agree with the statement. There are no right answers so respond thoughtfully but quickly.
1. It is important that I establish classroom control before I become too friendly with students.
Disagree Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 6 Agree Strongly
2. I believe that expanding on students' ideas is an effective way to build my curriculum.
3. I prefer to cluster students' desks or use tables so they can work together.
4. I invite students to create many of my bulletin boards.
5. I like to make curriculum choices for students because they can't know what they need to learn.
6. I base student grades primarily on homework, quizzes, and tests.
7. An essential part of my teacher role is supporting a student's family when problems are interfering with a student's learning.
8. I operate a democratic classroom because I believe it promotes social learning.
9. To be sure that I teach students all necessary content and skills, I follow a textbook or workbook.
10. I teach subjects separately, although I am aware of the overlap of content and skills.
11. I encourage students to propose and negotiate new classroom rules if they feel the current rules are not working.
12. I involve students in evaluating their own work and setting their own goals.
13. I wait for students to approach me before offering extra help.
14. When there is a dispute between students in my classroom, I try to intervene immediately to resolve the problem.
15. I believe students learn best when there is a fixed schedule.
16. I adjust my lesson plan based on results of homework assignments.
17. I make it a priority in my classroom to give students time to work together when I am not directing them.
18. I encourage students to solve internal problems independently when doing group work.
19. I would describe my students as co-managers of classroom procedures and events.
20. I make it easy for parents to contact me at school or home.
21. I encourage students to discuss conflicts in group meetings.
22. Cross-curricular activities are important to a student's development (e.g., writing in social studies, reading in math).
23. I immediately tell students the correct answers when they cannot figure them out by themselves.
24. For assessment purposes, I am interested in what students can do independently.
25. I encourage students to resolve conflicts independently.
26. I invite parents to volunteer in or visit my classroom almost any time.
27. I guide students in finding their own answers to academic problems.
28. I generally use the teacher's guide to lead class discussions of a story or text.
29. I prefer to assess students informally through observations and conferences.
30.I function in my classroom as a learner and partner in learning with my students.
31. I find that textbooks and other published materials are the best sources for creating my curriculum.
32. I encourage parents to follow up on classroom activities with students at home.
33. I believe in developing my classroom as a community of learners.
34. I encourage students to suggest ideas for arranging our classroom.
35. It is more important for students to learn to obey rules than to make their own decisions.
36. When rules don't work, I change the rules based on my professional judgment.
37. I often create thematic units based on the students' interests and ideas.
38. Rewarding students for being good citizens is a good way to teach students to care about one another.
39. I encourage discussions of different opinions and reasons.
40. I believe it is important to involve students in revising classroom rules as needed.
41. I believe students learn most effectively when learning tasks are broken down into small sequential steps.
42. When children request my assistance, I turn the decision-making responsibility back to the child.
43. It is important for teachers to reward students for following classroom rules.
44. It is more effective to provide students with the information they need to know, rather than encouraging them to experiment.
45. I view conflicts between students as opportunities to foster their social and moral development.
46. It is very important that teachers enforce classroom rules once they are established.
47. I believe that encouraging competition among students motivates them to learn more.
48. I encourage students to monitor their own behaviors rather than comply with my authority.
Thank you for your cooperation.