The collegiate preparation of speech teachers in twenty-five of Texas' largest senior high schools

Purpose of the Study. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the collegiate background and professional preparation of senior high school public speaking teachers among Texas' largest high schools. The intended use of the results of this investigation is to utilize its findings as a basis for suggesting a constructive program for the improvement of high school public speaking teachers on both the pre-service and in-service levels. The findings are intended to reveal to the individual speech teacher in high school the comparison of of his own degree of specialized speech study with the amount of specialized speech study suggested by criteria set up by teachers of speech, specialists, and by public school administrators. The ultimate purpose of this study is to set up a pattern of general, broad educational preparation, a specialized pursuit in the field of speech, and to provide a uniform pattern of combined courses of study for the high school speech program. Techniques, Procedures, and Sources of Data. The thesis form book by Campbell[1] was followed for the mechanical presentation of the study. The college records revealing the college degrees held by fifty-four senior high school speech teachers and the educational pattern determining the amount of general educational preparation and the amount of specialized college speech made by the individual speech teachers were used. Opinions of school administrators, namely, high school superintendents, supervisors, and principals, were obtained by questionnaires concerning requirements in college study to be made by speech teachers and then studied in relation to the amount of specialized and general academic education actually acquired by high school speech teachers. Literature published by recognised leaders in the field of teacher preparation was compared with academic educational preparation made by the teachers investigated. Recommended study and practice in the field of public speaking for high school speech teachers was sought from three sources, namely, from the high school speech teachers, from recognized writers in the field, and from high school administrators. Besides the information gained from these sources the actual educational patterns of the speech teachers were sampled. [...]