Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

12-15-1974

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine what changes in student teacher dogmatism and attitudes occurred during the student teaching experience as a function of the supervising teacher's dogmatism and attitudes as measured by the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory.

The population for this study consisted of all students enrolled in education courses during the spring semester of 1974 who had not had field work in the public schools and all Secondary Education students enrolled in student teaching and their supervising teachers. From this population the following sample was selected:

1. A group of 22 Secondary Education students who had not had field work in the public schools.

2. A group of 57 undergraduates composed of Mathematics, Science, English, Language Arts, and Social Studies majors enrolled in student teaching and their supervising teachers.

The student teachers selected for this study were divided into two groups. One group was assigned to the experimental group, E. The other group was assigned to a control group, C2. The students who had not had field experience in the public schools were assigned to the remaining control group, C1. Only the experimental group, E, and the control group, C2, received the experimental treatment. The experimental group, E, and the control group, C1, were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory as pretests. At the end of ten weeks all groups were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory as posttests.

The data were analyzed using an analysis of variance and t test. Rejection of the null hypotheses for this study was set at the .05 level. Because of pretest treatment interaction the drawing of conclusions from the data was difficult. The most significant finding of this study was that lt casts serious doubt on the findings of other studies that did not control for the effects of pretest-treatment interaction.

Future research on dogmatism and/or attitudes should use designs which do not require pretesting of subjects in the experimental group so that the problem of pretest-treatment interaction will be eliminated. An observational instrument should be used to correlate expressed attitudes with observed behavior.

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Secondary Education

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Sigmund Andrew Mierzwa Jr.

Second Committee Member

William Barton Runge

Third Committee Member

Robert White

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