Perceptions of Student Behavior as a Function of Expertise.

Abstract

This study investigated attributions and perceptions concerning student behavior and how these differed among teachers who vary in expertise and experience. Three groups of subjects were used; expert, advanced begin ners, and novice teachers. Following a ses sion during which each subject taught a les son to a group of students, each subject discussed his or her perceptions of particular students and answered questions related to attribution of behavior and prediction of future performance. Distinctions were found be tween groups in how they discussed student behavior as well as how they would deal with incidents of misbehavior. No distinctions were found in the prediction of future perfor