Characteristics of general education teachers perceived as effective by their peers: Implications for inclusion of children with learning and behavioral disorders

Abstract

Abstract We studied 186 teachers from eight elementary schools who completed several survey instruments measuring their standards and tolerance for classroom behavior, sense of responsibility for behavior that goes beyond their tolerance, resistance to working with handicapped students, sense of self‐efficacy, and perceptions of colleagues' effectiveness in working with students who have academic or behavior problems. Discriminant function analyses yielded predicted membership in high, medium, and low perceived effectiveness groups based on measures of self‐efficacy, standards and expectations for students, responsibility for student behavior, and resistance to teaching handicapped pupils. Results suggest that teachers' sense of general teaching efficacy contributed most to prediction of group membership. For teachers classified as high, average, and low in perceived effectiveness with a behavior‐problem student, general teaching efficacy, personal teaching efficacy, and to a lesser degree demanding‐ness ...