A Study to Determine the Effect of Teacher Attitude on Student Achievement

Abstract

Introduction:  Is Analytic teaching teacher-proof?  In order to help answer this question, a simple study was conducted at a Fort Worth elementary school.  1982-'83 was the first year of manditory involvement in the Analytic Teaching Program on the part of all regular classroom teachers at David K. Sellars Elementary.  Many of the teachers welcomed the program into their curriculum with great enthusiasm while others were less than pleased with the prospect of teaching two philosophy sessions per week.  Since each of the fourth and fifth grade teachers had completed Wesleyan's Analytic Teaching course and since each of their classes would be studying Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, this group was selected for the study.  Assessing attitudes is no easy task.  An annonymous survey (admittedly, a less than perfect tool) was devised for this purpose.  This study is based on the assumption that positive teacher attitudes toward subject matter can enhance student performance.  It proceeded as follows: