Dionne Cross Francis

In this chapter, we reviewed how existing empirical studies addressed relationships among teacher identity and teachers' beliefs about attribution, self-efficacy, and pedagogy-related beliefs. Studies focused on teacher attribution and teacher identity reported that attribution is a significant contributor to shaping teacher identity, with a close association between teacher attribution and teacher identity. These articles showed the important role attributions play when teachers interpret perceived congruences/incongruences between their current transactions in the classrooms and how they envision themselves as a teacher. Research on self-efficacy and teacher identity has demonstrated diverse relationships, including self-efficacy as part of teacher identity, the influence of efficacy or sources of efficacy on teacher identity, teacher identity as a source of influence on teacher efficacy, and the associations between efficacy and teacher identity. These relationships generally showed positive relationships between the two, in that high self-efficacy related to teacher strategies and skills bodes well for a positive and strong teacher identity. Lastly, studies on pedagogy-related beliefs and identity showed that teachers' pedagogy-related beliefs contribute to shaping teacher identity, or teacher identity and pedagogy-related beliefs are reciprocally intertwined. Teachers' pedagogy-related beliefs reflect the kind of teaching they want to do and shape the kind of teacher they want to be. Also simultaneously, teachers' identities influence their beliefs about teaching and learning. The chapter illustrates various relationships between teacher beliefs and teacher identity and suggests areas for future inquiry.

Teachers' mathematics-related beliefs significantly influence their instructional practices and ultimately student outcomes. To examine trends in the literature on teachers' mathematics-related beliefs since the previous Handbook, we systematically reviewed 156 publications from 2014 spanning journals in mathematics education, educational psychology, and learning sciences. These studies, which describe research across 30 countries, examined the beliefs of in-service and pre-service teachers using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches. We identified six key foci: (i) belief-practice alignment, (ii) beliefs about students' mathematical competence, (iii) connections between beliefs and knowledge, (iv) teacher efficacy beliefs, (v) belief change, and (vi) equity-oriented beliefs. Since 2014, researchers have expanded prior investigations into how teachers' mathematics-related beliefs align with their instructional practices, emphasizing the importance of fostering equity-related beliefs and facilitating their enactment in practice. Moreover, studies on equity-related beliefs highlight the crucial role of teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and practices in shaping the learning experiences of marginalized students. Professional development can strengthen teachers' efficacy beliefs, contributing to improved instructional quality, equitable classroom practices, and student achievement. Thus, it is imperative to support teachers in cultivating productive beliefs and practices to strengthen students' opportunities to learn and to close opportunity gaps for marginalized students. Future research should investigate how socio-historical-cultural contexts influence the development and enactment of teachers' mathematics-related beliefs, as well as how these contexts shape beliefs over time. Additional work is needed on how different belief types interact to influence practice and learning, as these insights are crucial for designing effective teacher education and professional learning opportunities.

Personalized learning has proven to be a meaningful approach for advancing learners’ cognitive, affective, and/or motivational variables. However, typical learners engaged in PL are K-16 students receiving support within digital, adaptive learning environments, the design of which is not explicitly grounded in learning theories. Using the key features of PL designs articulated by Plass and Pawar, we describe a personalized learning approach to teacher professional development that deviates from these norms with respect to the learner, the architecture of the learning environment, and the aims. We discuss the suitability of this distinctive design given the theory of change and describe opportunities for advancing the model using current technological innovations.