The death toll from AIDS continues to rise in the United States. As of May 1, 1995, 441,528 cases of AIDS had been recorded in the U. S. One of the most powerful ways to control the spread of this disease is prevention education. In 1988, Oregon passed OAR 581-22-412 requiring implementation of HIV/AIDS education as a part of a comprehensive health education program throughout grade levels K-12. The Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Division produced a curriculum and implemented a statewide inservice program in 1988. There has been no uniform statewide training since then, nor have implementation practices been monitored consistently. Sixth grade is a pivotal time in childhood when children are passing through puberty into adolescence. Sixth grade may be placed in a middle school with a health specialist, or in an elementary school with no health teacher. This grade may be the final opportunity for intervening before students adopt behavior patterns which may lead to HIV/AIDS. The purposes for this study were twofold. The first was to determine the extent to which Oregon sixth-grade teachers were implementing HIV/AIDS education. The second was to discover what factors might predict whether a sixth-grade teacher would be an implementer. A random stratified sample of 400 was drawn from the population of 1,333 sixth-grade teachers employed during 1993-1994. These teachers received a written questionnaire. Three-hundred and six teachers returned surveys. One-hundred and twenty of the subjects met the definition for implementer and 48 were determined to be non-implementers. The remaining 138 did not supply enough information to be categorized but their responses were used where applicable. Null hypotheses were tested using the chi-square and Mann-Whitney U statistics. Significant factors were whether teachers had some training and having had training in characteristics of HIV infection, low-risk behaviors leading to HIV infection, prevention behaviors, infection control, and social implications of AIDS. Regression analysis was employed to determine factors which predict that a teacher will be an implementer. Significant factors were a) having had inservice in low-risk behaviors, b) teaching in a self-contained classroom, c) and not defining oneself as politically conservative. / Graduation date: 1996

Research studies indicated that teachers' sense of self-efficacy is a multidimensional construct related to teachers' beliefs about teaching, their ability to teach, and their students' ability to learn. This study described the change in a cohort of graduate preservice elementary teachers' sense of efficacy as they progressed through a four quarter Master of Arts in Teaching degree program. Forty-nine subjects were administered the Teacher Efficacy Scale (Gibson and Dembo,1984) at four selected times during their program. Subjects' sense of efficacy was compared to the independent variables of age, years since completion of the baccalaureate degree, scores on the General Knowledge and Communication Skills components of the National Teacher Examination (NTE), and baccalaureate degree major. Data were factor analyzed. The three factor solution selected suggested that factors one and two represented the teacher's sense of personal teaching efficacy. Factor one represented the teacher's responsibility for positive student outcomes. Factor two represented the teacher's confidence in personal skills and abilities. Factor three represented the teacher's sense of general teaching efficacy. Subjects were divided into three groups based on their baccalaureate degree major. Means and standard deviations of efficacy factors discussed in this study were calculated for each of the three baccalaureate major groups at the June, 1991.; August, 1991; November,1991; and June, 1992 administrations. A summary of correlations (p = ≤ 0.05) was presented with data plots including best fitted lines. Multiple regression analyses indicated no significant interactions between age, and years since completion of the subject's baccalaureate degree, but did indicate that in two predictions, age made the most important contribution. Recommendations for further study and program improvement were presented. / Graduation date: 1993

The purpose of this study was to: (a) develop a comprehensive plan consisting of a series of logical steps based upon recommendations derived from psychometric, measurement, and research literature and utilize the plan to develop a Likert-type scale to provide valid and reliable measures of the attitude of preservice and inservice elementary school teachers toward computers; (b) administer the developed scale to selected preservice elementary school teachers; and (c) investigate relationships between attitude toward computers and selected teacher variables. The comprehensive plan consisted of the following steps: (a) develop theory of construction, (b) establish conceptual framework, (c) create item pool, (d) develop trial scale, (e) administer trial scale, (1) conduct item analysis, (g) select items, (h) construct final scale, (i) test for homogeneity, (j) determine reliability, (k) test for unidimensionality, (l) administer final scale, and (m) infer validity. The plan was utilized to develop the Evans Scale for Computer Attitude (ESCA). Validity was inferred utilizing construct-related evidence, which included the manner in which the scale was developed, studies of scale internal structure, prediction and conformation of a general factor, replication of factor structure, relationship of scale scores to nontest variables, relationship of scale scores to similar and dissimilar constructs, comparison of scores with experimental intervention, comparison of known-group responses. An alpha reliability coefficient was found to be 0.96 on two occasions. It was concluded that: (a) the ESCA provided valid and reliable measures of the computer attitude of preservice and inservice teachers at the elementary school level, (b) the comprehensive plan was effective for the development of a Likert-type scale for measuring the attitude toward computers of preservice and inservice teachers at the elementary school level, (c) preservice teachers in the Masters of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT) in Elementary Education at Oregon State University as a group had positive attitude toward computers, and (c) computer attitude of elementary MAT preservice teachers was significantly related in a positive direction with computer experience and in a negative direction with age. / Graduation date: 1995

This study addresses job satisfaction of public school teachers in seven districts of the Portland Metropolitan Area (N = 2,133; validated response = 1,444; ratio of 67.698 percent). The three research questions are: (1) How satisfied are teachers in the PMA with their jobs? (2) What are the primary differing factors affecting teacher satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and do these factors and their relationship to satisfaction conform with Herzberg and Lortie theories? (3) How does satisfaction and dissatisfaction vary as a function of the following "demographic" factors: age, sex, grade level, years of service, highest degree earned? Findings from the three research questions are: (1) Teachers in the PMA are very satisfied with their jobs. (2) Motivators (or intrinsic factors) contribute to satisfaction more than they contribute to dissatisfaction, and this finding tends to conform with part of Herzberg's dual-factor theory; hygienes (or extrinsic factors) are seen to contribute to satisfaction more than to dissatisfaction (opposite to the prediction), and this finding does not conform with part of the dual-factor theory. Factors that contribute most frequently to satisfaction of teachers in the PMA are: interpersonal relations with students and fellow teachers, sense of achievement, teaching as a kind of work, and opportunities to help others. Factors contributing most frequently to dissatisfaction are: salary, time spent preparing for teaching or on school-related activities outside of teaching or preparation for teaching, status, and policies and practices of the school district. The finding that interpersonal relations with students is the factor that contributes most frequently to teacher satisfaction does tend to conform with Lortie's theory. (3) Age, sex, and grade levels of assignment are seen to be significantly related to job satisfaction. Older teachers tend to be more satisfied than younger teachers; women tend to be more satisfied than men are with teaching; teachers of primary grades (through 4-6) tend to be more satisfied than teachers of higher grades (6-8, 7-9, 9-12). Years of service and highest degree earned are not seen to be significantly related to job satisfaction. Comparative data from 1981 and 1984 indicate that: the age of teachers, the percentage of women, and the average number of years of service are increasing for teachers in the PMA.