The Relationship of Students' Attitudes about Effective Teaching to Students' Ratings of Effective Teaching

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between students' attitudes toward effective teaching, perceptions held by students of their teachers' attitudes toward effective teaching, and ratings by students of their teachers' effectiveness. Students in a sample of 20 classes in a school of education completed the Attitude Toward Effective Teaching Scale (ATET), a measure of the students' attitudes toward the factors that contribute to effective teaching. Students completed the ATET scale a second time with instructions to respond to the scale as they believed their teacher would respond. The second administration provided a measure of the students' perceptions of their teachers' attitudes. A Teacher Rating Scale (TRS) was administered the last week of the semester. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the percentage of variance in end-of-course ratings that could be explained by similarity between students' and teachers' attitudes toward effective teaching.