Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

3-3-1972

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between student failure rate and teacher sense of responsibility toward student failure. The sample was selected randomly from officially accredited high schools in a single state in Colombia. The schools from which the sample was drawn were all composed of grades 6 through 12. All full-time teachers in each of the selected schools were required to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire was intended to determine whether teachers tended to assign the responsibility for student failure to themselves, to the student or to the school system. Biographical information about each teacher was also acquired through the use of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed specifically for this study and was submitted to a content validity procedure. It was hypothesized that there was a relationship between student failure rate and the teachers' attitudes toward their responsibility for failure. The hypothesis was supported by the analysis of the data. Further analysis of the data indicated that:

1. There is no relationship between a teacher's tendency to assign responsibility for failure to the students and the number of students failed by that teacher.

2. There is a relationship between a teacher's tendency to accept responsibility himself for student failure and the number of students failed by that teacher. The number of students failed in such cases tends to be fewer.

3. There is a relationship between the tendency for a teacher to assign responsibility for student failure to the educational system and the number of students failed by that teacher. The number of students being failed being larger in this case.

4. There is a relationship between selected teacher characteristics and attitudes toward student failure.

4.1 Of the teachers, the younger and less experienced place more responsibility for student failure on the student himself. Female teachers generally, and teachers in parochial schools, tended to assign responsibility for failure to the student.

4.2 The teachers who have graduated from business schools feel they are more responsible for student failure than other teachers.

4.3. The teachers with heavy loads and the mathematics and social studies teachers tended to assign responsibility for student failure to the system more frequently than other types of teachers.

The sense of responsibility for student failure in relation to who is perceived as responsible, either the student, the teacher, or the system, has a significant relationship to student failure rate. Teacher attitudes are highly influential in frequency of student failure. Because of the findings the following recommendations were made:

1. Teacher training and in-service programs must sensitize teachers to the relationship of their attitudes and student failure.

2. This study recommends that further studies be conducted to analyze how sex, subject matter, teacher load, teacher education levels, and the type of school where one teaches, influence teacher attitudes toward the responsibility of student failure.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

Spanish

Degree Name

Certificate in Curriculum and Instruction

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Miles Vernon Zintz

Second Committee Member

Ronald Eugene Blood

Third Committee Member

Dolores Gonzales

Fourth Committee Member

Samuel Roll

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