Teacher Interest and Pupil Attitudes

Abstract

Twelve first-grade teachers at four public elementary schools were given the Strong Vocational Interest Blank and rank ordered on the scales of Language and Writing, Mathematics, Social Science, and Natural Science. Teachers placing in the top 25% and bottom 25% of the score distribution constituted the high interest and low interest conditions. A random sample of five pupils was taken from each of the teacher's classrooms. Pupils were given the Survey of School Attitudes which measures attitudes on the four subject areas in question. One-tailed t tests were computed between pupil means for all subject areas. No significant differences were found in the areas of language and writing, mathematics, or social science. The difference between the means of the scores of the pupils identified with the high and low interest conditions in natural science was significant, t (28) = 2.08, p < .05.