The contributions of selected personality and situational variables to variations in teachers' attitudes to curriculum innovation

Abstract

The aim of the research was to estimate the contributions of selected PERSONALITY and SITUATIONAL variables to variations in teachers’ attitudes to curriculum innovation. A TWO-STAGE approach was adopted. At STAGE A, reliable measures of teachers' attitudes were developed by factor analysing the responses of 80 Polytechnic teachers to'an innovation in the Engineering Drawing curriculum for Technician students in TAMIL NADU (a state of South India). The contributions (partial correlations squared) of Dogmatism (a PERSONALITY variable) and of SITUATIONAL variables to variations in those teachers' attitudes were determined by Multiple Correlation Analysis. A similar correlation analysis was done in a group of 134 teachers made up of 54 teachers from three other States of South India (where the innovation was not implemented) together with the 80 teachers from TAMIL NADU. A quasi-illuminative study of the innovation was also undertaken. This included on-site observations of teacher classroom behaviours and a study of Pass Rates in Engineering Drawing examinations before and after the innovation. STAGE B consisted firstly in replicating (by second-order comparison) the correlational study in a sample of 82 Secondary School teachers concerned with a New Mathematics curriculum in England. Secondly, the list of independent variables for the correlation analysis was extended to include two RESISTIVITY FACTORS which were derived by factor analysis from four personality variables (Dogmatism, Rigidity, Neuroticism and Extraversion). Overall, the results Indicated that there was a significant, negative correlation between RESISTANCE-within-PERSONALITY (mainly in the form of Dogmatism) and teachers' attitudes to curriculum innovation. Less clear-cut was the relationship between these attitudes and the teachers' KNOWLEDGE of curriculum innovation. However, Attendance on Courses of specific training for implementing innovation explained some of the variance in the teachers' attitudes and suggestions were made for the organization of such courses.