Course evaluation and attitudes toward college teaching

Prior research suggests that attitudes may be one category of personal (student) variables that students bring to the task of evaluating college courses and their instructors. In a previous study, attitudes toward college teaching, in general, and the perceived progessivism of instructors, in particular, were associated with students' evaluations of courses. Perceived attitudes were a kind of evaluation. The results of the study raised the question as to when the attitude-evaluation relation was first formed in the course of a semester and whether a causal order between them could be established. The present study, using a repeated-measures design, replicated the major findings of the previous study on a cross-section of University of Haifa students attending 22 courses. While there is no clear evidence for the priority of either attitudes or evaluation, the findings indicate that their association is formed early in the course, with some further consolidation later on. Both attitudes and evaluations are remarkably stable during the course. In view of these findings it is suggested that classroom evaluations might be moved back to one of the first meetings of the course to allow for feedback and changes in the instructor's presentation. Moreover, perceived attitude measures could be developed into an indirect measure of teacher performance.     

Faculty attitudes toward industrial research on campus

To gauge the attitudes of university faculty concerning the effect of corporate funding on campus research norms, we conducted a study of research faculty in Texas, employing the theoretical framework proposed by Alvin Gouldner. Gouldner theorized that the most privileged academics hold the most conservative social and academic views. In his view, the most highly research-oriented faculty—those who are senior, engaged in professional activities, and in important and secure positions—have careerist values that influence the reward system for other sociologists. These gatekeepers control professional dogma, and by means of editorships, board memberships, and other professional peer judgments establish normative behavior for the discipline. By analogy, natural scientists who compete successfully for research grants are in a position of having the most to gain by the status quo, and hence are very conservative; their own success convinces this elite tier of faculty that a meritocracy is at work. Several of our findings corroborated Gouldner's thesis, particularly in the convergence of ideologies between junior and senior faculty, and the higher propensity of scientists to support applied research. Finally, the impact of disciplinary orientation, as opposed to faculty rank or appointment, is discussed with a view to subsequent research.     

Faculty attitudes toward student evaluation of teaching

This study dealt with university faculty attitudes toward the validity of and varying uses for student evaluations of teaching. It was hypothesized that faculty attitudes toward the potential uses of student evaluations would be systematically related to a professor's a priori frame of reference regarding the validity of these instruments. On the basis of responses to selected questionnaire items, faculty were divided into those whose frame of reference (1) opposed the idea that student evaluations could be made valid, (2) supported the idea that existing evaluation forms were valid, and (3) were uncommitted regarding this validity question. A fourth group, administrators at the university, were also surveyed. Large and consistent differences among these groups were found on policy matters such as the use of student evaluations in tenure and promotion decisions, in providing information to students to help them choose courses, and on a variety of other issues. In each case the results supported the hypothesis.Authors' names are ordered randomly.     

Religion and attitudes of college preservice teachers toward students with disabilities: implications for higher education

The study examined attitudes toward school inclusion of students with disabilities of 1,145 prospective teacher trainees from six national/religious groups in eleven colleges in Israel: The groups were secular, religious and ultra-orthodox Jews and Muslim, Christian and Druze Arabs. Participants responded to the “Opinion Related to Inclusion Scale”. Trainees in all six groups supported the principle of inclusion while simultaneously recognizing the need for segregated special education placements. Several significant group differences were found on the total score and the factor scores. The most supportive group of inclusion (i.e., the strongest rejection of segregation and the least concern about behavior problems) was the Jewish secular group followed by the Jewish religious group. The least support for inclusion was found for the ultra-orthodox Jewish group and the Arab groups. Implications for the preparation of educators in institutions of higher education were discussed.     

Basic research in speech and lateralization of language: Some implications for reading disability

Basic research in speech and the lateralization of language is shown to illuminate the problems of reading and some of its disabilities. First, it is pointed out how speech, or language for the ear, differs markedly from reading, or language for the eye. Though the sounds of speech are a very complex code and the optical shapes of written language are a simple cipher or alphabet on the phonemes, we all perceive speech easily but read only with difficulty. Perceiving speech is easy because, as members of the human race, we all have access to a special physiological apparatus that decodes the complex speech signal and recovers the segmentation of the linguistic message. Reading is hard because the phonemic segmentation, which is automatic and intuitive in the case of speech, must be made fully conscious and explicit. The syllabic method supplemented by phonics (used with certain reservations) is suggested for remediation of segmentation problems. Second, it is posited that since the sounds of speech are processed differently from non-speech sounds, the two should not be diagnosed and remediated interchangeably. Third, it is shown that the relationships among cerebral lateralization for language, handedness and poor reading can now be studied more meaningfully because of the recent development of new techniques. A truism often heard in the opening lecture of graduate classes in education is that we have few answers to the problems that beset us, only questions. In the field of reading, the difficulty may be owing at least in part to our impatient attempts to find immediate solutions for the teacher and the student in the classroom, and our consequent neglect of basic research. I should like to suggest today how knowledge of basic research in related disciplines may lead to clues for improving beginning reading instruction and the lot of the disabled reader—if only by affording us a deeper understanding of the reading process. Paper based on a talk given at the Twenty-first Annual Conference of The Orton Society, Washington, D.C., November 14, 1970.     

Educational research and reform: Some implications for the professional identity of early years teachers

Abstract

This paper examines the way in which recent criticisms of the work of primary school teachers in Britain, most notably those entailed in and following the publication of the so‐called ‘Three Wise Men's Report’, have attempted to redefine the professional identity of early years teachers. The paper objects to the manner in which their critiques have been formulated and calls upon educational researchers to adopt a less reverential attitude to government proposals for the reform of primary education in general and early years schooling in particular.     

Changing attitudes toward science: Undergraduates in 1967 and 1971

The purpose of the study was to examine the change in attitudes toward science and the scientific institution which had occurred among undergraduate university students between 1967 and 1971. Two similar cohorts of university undergraduates were given Form A of the Schwirian Science Support Scale (Tri-S) in 1967 and 1971. The populations were 398 students and 153 students, respectively. Data concerning relevant contingent independent variables were also collected. The data were analyzed utilizing nine, two-way analyses of variance. The major independent variable, time of administration, (1967 and 1971) was always one factor; the second factor in each ANOVA consisted of each of the nine contingent independent variables: (1) age; (2) sex; (3) religious preference; (4) father's education; (5) mother's education; (6) father's occupation; (7) academic major; (8) hometown size; and (9) type of high school. The data from the nine, two-way ANOVA's show significant differences ( p < .05 ) in only two instances. In the case of the association of the Tri-S Scores with father's occupation at times one and two, it was observed that the higher the status of the father's occupation, the higher the student's Tri-S score. This relationship was observed in both 1967 and 1971; there was no significant effect of time. Statistically significant differences in Tri-S scores were also observed among students from different sized hometowns; and in this case, there was a change over time. In 1967 students from small and medium-sized communities had significantly lower Tri-S scores than students from farms and large cities. By 1971 the mean scores of the students from small and medium sized communities had increased, producing scores slightly higher than the farm and city students. The findings indicate that the 1971 Midwestern university students in the sample are no less positive in their attitudes toward science than their 1967 counterparts. No significant differences between overall 1967 and 1971 scores exist and no significant differences over time were observed by age, sex, religious preference, father's or mother's education, father's occupation, academic major, or high school type.     

Developing the wasp: Wareing attitudes toward science protocol

Affective development has long since been cited as one of the main components of scientific literacy. According to Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia, attitudes, emotions, and values that are manifested as preferred choices, appreciations, and interests comprise the affective domain. Such attitudes, emotions, and values are neither immutable nor necessarily transferable from one discipline to the next. In an effort to identify and measure scientific affect and to later assess its impact on achievement, the author set out to develop and validate an attitude instrument in the form of a Likert-type scale. Following test construction, reliability was calculated according to several split-half methods, using a sample of 806 students in grades 4 through 12. The result was a most satisfactory reliability range of 0.91–0.94.     

Modifying attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments. A comprehensive review of the research

Negative attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments adversely affect their opportunities and self-concepts. Thus, modifying such attitudes is of concern to educators and researchers. An exhaustive search of the literature yielded 12 reports of research on modifying attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments. The research results were mixed--some studies even yielded negative attitude outcomes--and the quality of the studies was not high. Of the treatments studied, properly structured contact in particular showed promise for improving attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments.