Teachers’ implicit theories of professional abilities in the domain of school improvement

Abstract

Numerous studies show positive effects of students’ malleable implicit theories of their abilities on their self-regulated learning and learning achievements, especially when domain-specific implicit theories are assessed. It is reasonable to assume that this relationship also exists on the teacher level. What role do teachers’ implicit theories of professional abilities play for school improvement. In a sample of Swiss primary school teachers at schools, we analyzed how teachers’ malleable (vs. fixed) implicit theories of professional abilities are related to collective metacognitive and emotional-motivational regulation activities and to the perception that the school is on the right track to improvement.