HOW DO TEACHERS UNDERSTAND RESEARCH WHEN THEY READ IT

Attention to teachers' beliefs has become an essential feature of studies designed to help teachers understand research. The beliefs on which researchers and teacher educators typically focus are teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. Teachers' beliefs about educational research, however, may also strongly influence their understanding and use of research. This study provides a description and analysis of how teachers read research in light of their prior beliefs about what research is and how it should influence their teaching. The subjects of the study were two distinct groups of teachers with varying levels of prior involvement with educational research. One group included five former ''teacher collaborators'' who had worked with researchers on research projects for at least one year. The second group was comprised of eight teachers with considerably less experience with research. Teachers read and responded to three different types of research articles and two research findings. How teachers evaluated the research articles and findings is described and analyzed as well as the different types of evidence teachers cite as credible to them. In light of teachers' prior belief about research, the author shows that teachers differed substantively in terms of their willingness and/or ability to read and understand research. Consequently, the author suggests that teacher educators and researchers pay attention both to teachers' beliefs about research and how they read research if research, broadly conceived, is to play a role in educating teachers.