Book Description

The relationships between teachers' attitudes toward responsibility and locus of control and other characteristics such as stress, educational attitudes, and attitudes toward change were studied in 54 (35 female and 19 male) experienced primary and secondary school teachers taking a course on classroom-based research. Attitude toward responsibility and locus of control were determined with instruments adapted for this purpose. Teacher stress was measured by an adapted version of the Wilson Stress Profile for Teachers, and educational attitude and attitude toward change were measured by scales previously developed. Responsibility correlated with teacher stress in the predicted direction, and there were significant correlations with educational attitude and attitude toward change. Correlations between locus of control and the criterion measures were not as high as expected. Teacher locus of control was thus a weaker predictor of the criterion measures than was responsibility. These constructs of responsibility and perceived teacher efficacy showed concurrent and convergent validity through the configuration of correlations of the attitude measures. Two tables present study data, and two appendices contain the Responsibility and Teacher Locus of Control Scales. (SLD)