Teacher Education Candidates' Perceptions of Students.

N

27

Attitude Measures; Career Choice; Counseling Services; Education Majors; Educational Counseling; Evaluation Methods; Interpersonal Competence; Interpersonal Relationship; Predictive Measurement; Preservice Teacher Education; Student Attitudes; Success; Teacher Education; Teacher Educators

The Ideal Student Description Q-Sort was developed originally as a predictive instrument to determine probable success rates as teachers based upon the teacher candidate's perceptions of students in general. The Q-Sort consists of 84 items describing "openness" and "closedness" in a student and reveals the extent to which a teacher perceives students as either flexible (positive) or rigid (negative) in their interpersonal relationships, and also suggests whether the teacher is more open in his/her perceptions of students. Results of administering the Q-Sort over a four-year period indicated that participants in secondary education programs had a more negative perception of students at the outset, remained more rigid in their views, and tended to become increasingly negative over the four-year period and into their first year of teaching. The opposite was found true for students in the elementary education programs. It became apparent to the investigator that measuring student characteristics for screening purposes at a definite point in time was contrary to the concept of developmental teaching and learning, and that perceptions can be changed over a period of time provided sequences of learning activities are made available (even though secondary teaching candidates are more inflexible). The ISD Q-Sort, instead of becoming a screening device, may evolve into a counseling instrument used in planning the sequence of interpersonal relationships in teacher education indicated by the candidate's individual needs. (MB)

ED132122