The study was designed to determine and compare the perceptions of various groups with regard to the most and the last important characteristics and behaviors of effective teachers. The population for the study included (a) four groups of high school graduates selected at five year intervals beginning with 1980, (b) four groups of high school dropouts selected from the same five year intervals, (c) high school teachers, (d) high school principals and central office administrators, and (f) teacher educators. The instrument used to determine perceptions was a 28 item Q-sort. The items of the Q-sort were developed from a review of the literature on teacher effectiveness and from a review of the criteria for the evaluation of teacher effectiveness as used by the school district in which the study was conducted. The Q-sort items were deemed valid by a panel of teacher educators.

This project is a descriptive study of the Albina Youth Opportunity School of Portland, Oregon. The school is described as one whose primary function is to help disadvantaged students who have extreme social and academic problems. The study focused on the students' perception of their teachers, who are defined by the school as teacher-counselors. Of the seventy full-time students, sixty-five participated in the study, and five refused to do so. The major questions of the study were concerned with the students' assessment of the teacher-counselors characteristics. Main areas for exploration dealt with the students' perception of the role of a teacher-counselor in relation to their specific needs. Factors taken into consideration were sex, age, length of attendance at the school, and the student's belief that the teacher-counselor liked or disliked him. A questionnaire was administered to each student in order to determine his assessment of the teacher-counselor role. Date was analyzed with the help of scale-measured attitudes of variables dealing with teaching and counseling items and tests of significance. Indices were computed from the data. Descriptive statistics included the use of frequency distribution, percentages, means, medians, and correlations. Study findings indicated that some students see the role differently, and some differences were difficult to interpret in terms of specific traits. There were differences in perception associated with the factors of sex, end length of attendance at the school. The findings suggest that the student's belief that the teacher-counselor like or dislike s him or her is associated with perception. They also yield evidence that the students perceive the teacher-counselor concept as a duel role. Implications are that the students who attend this school are being provided learning environment which is helpful to their needs.

The classroom as a messenger of learning and awareness is an honored institution. Education promotes the spirit of inquiry. Concurrently, inquiry spearheads research. As students who have spent many hours in a classroom, we have wondered, inquired, into the spirit of the classroom. Our research is devoted to gaining and establishing a series of perspectives as to what occurs in the classroom. Our research is concerned with specific characteristics of the teacher-learner relationship and outcomes of that relationship. Specific characteristics of the student-teacher relationship such as effective communication, clarity of course objectives, or the quality of class lectures, have been explored by the use of an evaluative tool. Outcomes of the teacher-learner relationship such as the achievement of course objectives, and their relevance to Direct Services were also explored. As students in the School of Social Work, we saw dearth of communication between students and their respective professors. By assessing the relative successes of Direct Service Methods classes, and by the processes that are necessary for assessment, we hope to serve students and those who teach them.

No description available.

Declining enrollments and continuing tuition increases are having major impact on all universities. It is a commonly accepted fact that the quality of a university can be directly related to the quality of its faculty. With this assumption in mind, a university must then determine the best method for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of its faculty members. The study is an examination of certain student characteristics that might affect the attitudes of students when evaluating instructors. Seven individual student characteristics (sex, age, academic level, major, nationality, teaching preference and leadership experience) were examined to determine if there was any relationship between these characteristics and the student's attitude toward the instructor evaluation process. In addition, the responses obtained in the study were compared to those in similar studies previously conducted at Kansas State University and the University of Southern California. The research population consisted of 567 students enrolled at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. Students who participated in the research were enrolled in courses offered by the Management Department and they were requested to evaluate their instructor at the completion of each course. The data for the study were obtained from a 27-item questionnaire titled Student Attitude of Evaluation Questionnaire. Ten of the items related to demographic data and 17 items related to student attitudes toward different aspects of the evaluation process. Information from the returned questionnaires was evaluated and tabulated utilizing the SPSS/PC program Analysis of Variance: Procedure ANOVA. An analysis of variance at the .05 level of significance was employed to examine the research questions. On an overall basis, there was no significant difference in students' attitudes toward the evaluation system based on individual student characteristics. However, the research did reveal some significant differences on individual items, i.e., one group feeling much stronger about a particular issue than another group. It was concluded from the research that students are strongly in favor of student evaluation of instructors, especially female students and lower-level undergraduate students.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This investigation sought the perceptions of a selected group of Mexican-American community leaders in Tucson, Arizona, concerning their recollected classroom relationships with their teachers. The investigation proceeded on the basis of a three-part theoretical framework drawn from the literature of psychology, anthropology, and education. The theory included the following: (1) Perceptual Processes; (2) Cultural Processes; and (3) Interpersonal Processes. An interview schedule, based on the elements of the theoretical framework, was developed employing a Likert type scale together with an open-ended comment format. Twenty Mexican-American community leaders were identified and interviewed in depth regarding the perceived relationships that they recalled having had with their respective teachers. Among the findings, the following appeared to be most significant: (1) the participants generally agreed that their teachers were aware of them; (2) the participants reported perceiving that their teachers had accepted them; (3) the participants agreed that their teachers had generally not accepted most aspects of their bicultural being. They reported perceiving that their teachers' thrust appeared to have been toward assimilation; (4) the participants reported that their teachers seemed not to have cared sufficiently to communicate to them that their bicultural identities were important; (5) the participants reported that their teachers had not encouraged them to make choices in becoming independent persons. They tended to report that their teachers had lowered expectations for them and therefore had not adequately challenged them; and (6) the participants perceived that their teachers had not extended themselves to positively support their cultural identities.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--James Madison University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-129).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-129). Also available in print.