An Analysis of Teacher Opinion Regarding Student Academic Achievement and Teacher Ability to Cope with Underachievement.
ABSTPACT An instrument was designed 'o allow respondents to freely express their opinions concerning the major learning problems of students in the public schools, the quality and nature of their teacher education programs, and their retrospective views of courses which would have met their needs better than the ones which were taken. The instrument used to collect the data was an open-ended opinionnaire which was distributed to all public school administrative units within a 24-county area of southwest Missouri. Administrators were requested to distribute the instrument to faculty members and to some students as well. The 158 respondents indicated, among other things, that. their preparation was not adequate for "eaching the expressive and receptive communication skills, for beaching children appropriate questioning skills, for matching materials with children's reading levels, or for organizing classrooms for instruction in reading. Other conclusions drawn from this questionnaire are discussed and specific recommendations are made. (TS)
Change in Student Teacher Dogmatism.
AbstractThe purpose of this study was to determine if change in student teacher dogmatism during the student teaching experience was a function of the degree of dogmatism of the supervising teacher. The measure of dogmatism for all subjects was Rokeach’s Dogmatism Scale, Form E. The population in the study consisted of eighty student teachers and eighty supervising teachers. A significant change in dogmatism scores of student teachers did occur. Of the eighty student teacher subjects, fifty-three moved in the direction of the supervising teacher on the variable of dogmatism from pretest to posttest. Twenty-seven student teachers moved in the opposite direction. This difference was significant at the .01 level. The shift in mean dogmatism score for those student teachers who scored lower than the supervising teacher was significant at the .01 level. For the subjects who scored higher the mean shift was significant at the .05 level.
Teaching as a creative process
A few years ago a reporter, trying to track down the wellspring of the creative process, asked Edna Ferber "why" she writes. Her reply was at once startling and satisfying-". . . because it is less agonizing to write than not to write." Many people would be greatly surprised, however, if today's dedicated teacher were to state in forthright fashion that it is less agonizing to teach than not to teach. The agonies of teaching they are well acquainted with, for they have heard about the recalcitrant youth who, like the whining schoolboy of Shakespeare's day, "goes unwillingly to school." But to teach because one feels one MUST, doesn't make sense. Surely the teacher is in his profession because of "the short hours" or "the summers off." And if to this already incomprehensible picture, the dedicated teacher were to add the remark, "I teach because I love it and-well-because (plunging) I THINK IT'S CREATIVE," he would immediately have joined the ranks of the eccentric. After all, whoever heard of TEACHERS being creative? Didn't Shaw say, "He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches."? Luckily, most self-appointed critics would probably not be sufficiently well versed in the Shavian brand of acrid humor to go on to another well-quoted remark in which Shaw tells us that there is no worse abortionist than he who tries to mold the child. Nevertheless, despite these negative reactions, many teachers would readily agree that teaching IS a creative process and that in the interaction in the classroom, considerable "molding" of the child does take place. Surely teaching is no less a creative process than writing, painting, or composing, and the dedicated teacher can readily see himself as creative artist, for in his work the elements of the creative process-immersion, openness to experience, inspiration, and elaboration-are all present.