A Comparison of Label-Induced Expectancy Bias in Two Preservice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a special education minor would reduce the likelihood of preservice elementary teachers developing negative expectancies regarding students labeled behaviorally disordered. Participating as subjects were 12 students from the Specialized Instruction program (SI) and 12 students from the Elementary and Early Childhood Education ElEd) Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. The investigation was divided into two phases. In phase one, subjects filled out the Distributing Behavior Checklist (Algozzine, 1978), a measure of tolerance towards behavior problems. In phase two, subjects viewed two videotapes. Each tape focused on an average second grade boy in a reading group. Subjects were told that one of the videotaped boys was behaviorally disordered. After each videotape, subjects completed the Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967) as a measure of bias. Results indicated that both groups had similar tolerances toward behavior problems and rated the student labeled behaviorally disordered more negatively. However, the bias effect was more pronounced in the ElEd group. Tolerance, teacher education program, and knowledge of the experimental intent accounted for 32% of the variance in expectancy bias.