A study of the relationships among pupil perception of teacher social power base teacher pupil control ideology and teacher concern level in teachers of secondary mathematics

Date

1976

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Abstract

Problem. Much research on teachers and teaching has been devoted to the concerns and problems of teachers and their effects on teacher and student behavior. Studies have also attempted to isolate some of the sources of these concerns and problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among concerns, control ideology and power attributions as they apply to the school as a formal organization. This study hoped to provide empirical support for applying Fiedler's Organizational Engineering theory to schools at the classroom level. Instrumentation. The Pupil Control Ideology Form was used to determine teachers control ideology as being custodial or humanistic. A revised form of the Teacher Concern Checklist, Form B, was used as a measure of teacher concern level. The Pupil Perception of Teacher Social Power Base Form provided both a total measure of teacher social power and measures of each of five bases (expert, reward, coercive, legitimate and referent) of social power. Procedures and Sample. Both teacher and student instruments were administered during a regular class period. Data were collected during a six week period of the third Quarter of the 1975-76 school year. The sample consisted of 49 teachers and students (one class for each teacher participating in the study) in the Houston Independent School District. Data Treatment and Analysis. A pupil control ideology score, a total concern score and five concern dimension scores were calculated from teacher responses. Using the responses from the student questionnaires a mean power score and a mean score on each of the five power bases were calculated for each teacher and used in the analysis. Five hypotheses and six related questions were formulated. Regression analysis was used. Hypotheses were tested and related questions answered using the F- Statistic with alpha = .05. Conclusions and Recommendations. Teachers with high levels of concern were found to be more humanistic in pupil control ideology and to have significantly more social power attributed to them by their students. More specifically teachers with higher concern levels were perceived as having more expert, legitimate, and coercive power than teachers with lower concern levels. It was also found that teachers teaching at schools with between 1100 and 2500 students tended to have higher concern levels. Student perceptions of teacher social power base was found to be positively related to teacher pupil control ideology. Power perceptions were found to be significantly related to school size but unrelated to grade level for students of 8th, 9th and 10th grade mathematics. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended that the results of this study be used as a basis for research designed to answer such questions as: (1) What kinds of power teachers perceive themselves as having? (2) Are teachers perceptions of their powers congruent with student perceptions of teachers powers? (3) Do pupils in smaller classes establish a more personal relationship with their teachers and thereby attribute more referent power to them? (4) Must teachers of larger classes use more coercive power? (5) Are pupil perceptions of teacher power trait or state characteristics? It was also recommended that future studies using the revised form of the Teacher Concerns Checklist - Form B consider reconceptualizations necessitated by the redefinition of some of the factors. Studies designed to determine if an order exists in the relationship of social power perceptions to pupil control ideology were recommended. Finally, it was recommended that results of studies such as this be used designing in-service training courses for teachers.

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Teacher-student relationships

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