作者認為以往研究之所以無法有效預測教師的教育觀與教育方式之關係，最可能的原因是，教育方式並非單純的教育理念或哲學思考的具體反映，它是人性觀與教育觀共同參與的具體實踐。雖然教師的人性觀包含了善惡觀、能力觀、個性觀、本研究選擇了人性觀中與學習表現最密切的能力觀作為主題，以教師為研究對象，探討教師的能力觀在教師對學生表現歸因以及對待學生的方式上可能扮演的角色。具體目標是，（1）以可塑性為指標，探討一般教師的能力觀取向，（2）了解教師能力觀與教師對學生表現歸因的關係，（3）釐清教師能力觀與管教方式的關係。作者設計了一份以能力觀測量以及假想案例所構成的問卷，重點是以「能力可塑性」、「能力與表現的關係」、「能力與教育方式的關係」為主軸。問卷受訪對象為各級學校教師，凡530人。結果顯示：（1）持低可塑性能力觀的教師只佔全體的7.3％，有一半的教師（50.2％）持高可塑性的能力觀；（2）持低可塑性能力觀之教師均顯著傾向能力歸因，持高可塑性觀點之教師則傾向做努力歸因；（3）持低可塑性能力觀的人當中，判斷加強管教會有助於改善成績表現的比例最低；中可塑性觀者居次，高可塑性觀者最高；（4）持「可塑性低」能力觀之教師比持「可塑性高」能力觀之教師較傾向採用「處罰責罵」的管教方式。本文最後也討論了以研究結果為基礎的師資培育或進修課程的想法。

The present research starts out from the hypothesis derived from the previous work that conception of human nature may be another important contributing factors of educational practice besides conception of education. Taking conception of ability as the key conception of human nature, the present research was conducted under three purposes: (a) to understand teachers conception of ability in terms of malleability, (b) to explore the relationship between teachers’ beliefs in ability malleability and their attribution of students’ performance, as well as the relationship with (c) educational practice. 530 teachers from primary, junior high and high schools responded to the questioner consisted of measurement of ability conception and hypothesized stories. The results demonstrated that: (a) most teachers believe that ability is a malleable trait., (b) those believe in high malleability attribute students performance to effort, low malleability to ability, (c) those believe in high malleability believe in the effectiveness of education more than others, (d) those do not believe in malleability of ability incline to negative educational practice. Finally, the suggestions to the teachers education based on the research results were discussed.