Teacher beliefs are at the heart of educational endeavors: what teachers believe about teaching and learning has been shown to impact their classroom practices and decisions (Basturkmen, 2012).
Definitions of beliefs vary (Allen, 2013; Borg, 2015). Some scholars suggest a distinction between beliefs and adjacent terms like knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions while others advocate for a unification of terms within broader ones (e.g., cognitions) (Borg, 2003). This study takes the latter path, assuming a broad definition of beliefs: the ways that teachers organize and make sense of the world that influence (although do not determine) pedagogical action (Allen, 2013; Borg, 2011, 2015).