Implicit theories about teaching skills predict university faculty members' interest in professional learning

Abstract

Implicit theories about the malleability of skills/abilities predict people's willingness to participate in learning opportunities. In a prior study, we applied the implicit theory framework to the domain of teaching skills and found that implicit theories of teaching skills (i.e., beliefs about whether teaching skills can change with effort) predicted university instructors' self-reported interest in professional development (PD). The current study extended these findings by including a behavioral measure of PD interest and examining whether the association between implicit theories of teaching skills and PD interest held up after teaching self-efficacy—a widely-studied self-belief variable—was taken into account. Findings showed that the implicit theories of teaching measure was a strong predictor for both self-report and behavioral outcomes, even when teaching self-efficacy and other control variables were taken into account. Implications for professional learning contexts, in which educators are positioned as learners, are discussed.