Students' Reading Ability Moderates the Effects of Teachers' Beliefs on Students' Reading Progress

Teachers' beliefs about teaching have been found to affect students' learning growth. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of teachers' constructivist and direct-transmissive beliefs on learners' reading progress and whether these effects are influenced by students' ability. We measured constructivist and direct-transmissive beliefs of 29 teachers and the progress in reading fluency and reading comprehension of their students (N = 568) at eight points of measurement over one school year. Results of three-level latent growth curve modeling revealed that only teachers' global, but not reading specific constructivist beliefs, were generally positively related to learners' progress in reading fluency. Beliefs about teaching had no general effect on growth in reading comprehension, but the relation between constructivist beliefs and students' progress in reading comprehension was affected by students' prior skills. Teachers with stronger constructivist beliefs effected higher learning growth for high ability compared to low ability learners within their classrooms. No effects were found for direct-transmissive beliefs. This study adds a more differentiated view to findings concerning the effects of teacher beliefs by showing that effects vary depending on the skill under study (fluency vs. comprehension), and that effects of teacher beliefs may depend on students' ability.