Chapter 5: Shifting Mindsets Before Teaching Mindsets: The Role of Belief Change Among Preservice Teachers Learning about Motivation

To understand how college instructors can effectively teach preservice teachers about motivation, it is important to take a step back to first consider what teachers in training think about motivation. In other words, what are their beliefs? And how might adaptive motivational beliefs be supported²? Often motivation principles are taught through a combination of direct instruction followed by application activities. Although this type of approach helps to facilitate comprehension, effective application in the classroom is more likely to occur if teachers’ beliefs are aligned with the suggested practice (Pajares, 1992). Thus, college instructors’ efforts are likely to be more impactful by considering preservice teachers’ existing beliefs about motivation.