Date of Award

8-1-1972

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine how effective cooperating teachers were in performing their assigned duties during the actual student teaching period. The population consisted of University of North Dakota student teachers who were actively involved in the field experience during the 1970-1971 academic year. The purpose of the study was threefold: (1) to design an instrument which could be used for a study of this nature, (2) to determine the effectiveness of cooperating teachers in all academic areas, and (3) to determine how effective cooperating teachers were in specific aspects of the student teaching experience and by academic area.

Pilot Test: The pilot test to design an instrument consisted of modifying an existing instrument by a panel of judges and by an administration of the instrument to student teachers during the first semester of the 1970-1971 academic year. The panel of judges determined that 80 of the 95 items presented were accepted as items to be used in the study. Ninety-four student teachers returned the questionnaire and the data was treated statistically to determine the reliability coefficient of the instrument. As a result of the pilot test it was determined that the instrument had

Research Study: The research population consisted of University of North Dakota student teachers who were enrolled in the field experience during the second semester of the 1970-1971 academic year. A total of 146 student teachers responded to the 80 item questionnaire which used a 5 point Likert scale to evaluate the cooperating teacher’s performance on each item. The data received provided information on the way in which a cooperating teacher performed the duties of a cooperating teacher according to the perception of the student teacher. Some background information on the type of student teaching assignment, academic level and area involved, and other biographical data was also requested.

The questionnaire was divided into 5 parts: (1) orientation, (2) observation, (3) actual teaching activities, (4) conferences, and (5) evaluation. These 5 parts corresponded to the 5 major aspects of the student teaching experience. The cooperating teachers were evaluated on each of the 5 separate aspects and according to the overall test instrument score on all 80 items.

When all cooperating teachers were treated as one group by a multiple regression technique it was determined that there was no significant difference between each of the five parts of the instrument or with the total test. There was a great amount of variance in terms of the low scores and the top scores on all parts of the test instrument but no significant difference was found. The range of scores on the total test (80 items) was 231, with the highest score reported as 394 of a possible 400, and the lowest reported to be 163.

Female student teachers generally rated their cooperating teachers higher than male student teachers. Elementary level student teachers similarly rated their cooperating teachers higher than did secondary level student teachers. It could he determined from these reported findings that the elementary level cooperating teachers are perceived doing a better job than secondary level cooperating teachers. Likewise a cooperating teacher who was assigned a female student teacher was perceived doing a better job than one who had a male student teacher. These reported findings were significant at the .05 level on a two-tailed test when considered on all the 80 items or total test and on A or the 5 aspects of the student teaching experience.

At the secondary level, when considered by academic preparation area, no significant differences were found to exist in any of the 5 parts of the student teaching experience or on the total test scores. Several negative correlations were found to exist in the various academic areas but none were significant. There were no significant differences found when the type of student teaching assignment or age level of the student teachers were treated. Female cooperating teachers were generally rated higher than male cooperating teachers but, again, not significantly higher.

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