Just as preexisting beliefs mediate the ways in which messages received in preservice are interpreted and assimilated (Matanin & Collier, 2003), Bechtel OʼSullivan (in press) suggest that beliefs have the potential to impact the effectiveness professional development (PD) programs. This is of particular interest considering the PD opportunities that underlie educational reform efforts for of varying experience levels where the implicit goal of the PD initiative is of teacher change (Fullan, 1992). If preexisting beliefs filter information, then beliefs might in fact serve to mediate change in response to PD. are not passive recipients of PD—they are active participants. Teachers at workshops with prior knowledge and varying levels of expertise in to differing values, identities, interests, and motivations (Levinson &, 2001). The knowledge provided at workshops is not merely transmitted to, but is mediated by sociohistorical features of the mode of delivery. These but are not exclusive to the language used to convey the content, subjective of participants as they negotiate their experience and relationships, and both brought to and created within PD interventions (Holland, Skinner,, & Cain, 1998; Wenger, 1998).
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Deglau et al. (2006) studied this question.