Attitudes of middle school teachers toward practices recommended for middle schools / by Charles R. Watson.
| Author/creator | Watson, Charles R., 1944- author. |
| Other author | Glatthorn, Allan A., 1924-2007, degree supervisor. |
| Other author | East Carolina University. Department of Educational Leadership. |
| Format | Theses and dissertations |
| Production | 1992. |
| Description | xiv, 348 leaves : forms ; 28 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Access via ScholarShip |
| Subjects |
| Summary | The recently recommended practices for middle schools require significant changes in teaching practices and school organization. Interdisciplinary teams are recommended to replace departments; integrated curricula are recommended to replace traditional subjects; intramural sports are recommended to replace interscholastic sports programs; advisor-advisee programs are recommended to enhance student affective development; heterogeneous grouping is recommended to replace homogeneous ability grouping; flexible scheduling is recommended to replace tradition instructional periods; shared decision-making is recommended for teachers and administrators; and pre-vocational and exploratory programs are recommended for expansion and integration into programs. A study of middle school teachers' attitudes and perceived knowledge regarding these practices is especially timely, therefore, during this period of unprecedented attention to middle grades programs. The study focused on two purposes: first, to develop and validate an instrument that would measure teachers' attitudes toward and perceived knowledge of these recommended practices; second, to assess teachers' attitudes and knowledge about the practices, and explore correlation relationships between knowledge, attitude, and various demographic variables. Specifically, the study explored the relationships between and among teachers' attitude and knowledge of the recommended practices and teaching experience, gender, age. Educational level, and number of years the schools reported using the practices. The study did not test teachers' genuine knowledge, but the teachers' perceptions of their knowledge; that is, no actual test of knowledge was given. The findings of the study can be generalized into the following statements. For this population, teachers' reported attitudes and knowledge levels regarding the eight identified middle school practices are moderately to highly supportive and significantly positively correlated, with some variation with respect to the practices of core integrated curriculum, advisor-advisee, and heterogeneous grouping for instruction. There were no significant differences in attitude or knowledge across the variables of teaching experience, gender, age, or educational level, with some questionable variations regarding gender. There were no significant differences in attitude or knowledge with regard to the number of years the schools reported using the recommended practices. Finally, no demographic variable used in the study accurately predicted either teachers' attitudes or knowledge. |
| General note | Submitted to the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership. |
| General note | Advisor: Allan A. Glatthorn |
| General note | Abstract title: Attitudes of middle school teachers toward recommended practices for middle schools. |
| Dissertation note | Ed. D. East Carolina University 1992 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 284-299). |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Thèses et écrits académiques. |