Attitudes Toward Education and Perception of Teacher Behaviors

Abstract

Evaluation of teachers through classroom observations is a prevailing practice in most modern school systems. Despite the prevalence of this practice, there is reason to question its validity as an assessment procedure. As pointed out by Barr, if a group of supervisors were simultaneously to observe the same teacher, their judgments vary so much that some observers may rate a particular teacher as among the very best they have and others among the very worst they have observed (Barr, 1961, p.57). Although specific formulations vary, the influence of internal personality factors on social perception is recognized by most theorists. Postman, (1951) Bruner, (1949) Sherif and Sherif, (1956) Klein, (1957) and Newcomb, (1959) have all addressed themselves to the relation between attitudes and perception. In an educational setting, one might expect that the attitudes that influence perception are attitudes toward education. This study represents an attempt to investigate the role of educational attitudes in the perception of teacher behaviors.