Contemporary psychology, Vol. 7 No. 1, 2004.
Professional paper
Personality factors and teacher attitude in relation to their evaluation methods
Slavica Šimić
Izabela Sorić
Abstract
The examination of student knowledge, in the psychological sense, is a procedure whereby questions (stimuli) are directed toward the subject (student), causing reactions of knowledge (answers). Evaluations entail value judgements of the students' answers using units of the school evaluation scale, thus directly measuring knowledge (Grgin, 1994). However, a series of factors influences the situation of measuring student knowledge, causing a lack of objectivity in evaluating knowledge. One of the factors influencing the inadequate numeric value of grades which depends on the teacher as the measuring instrument, is the teacher's personal equation which is visible in the tendency to lower or raise evaluation criteria. Very little research has examined the personal equation of teachers. For this reason, it seemed interesting to examine the relationship of the teachers personal equation and personality factors. We assumed that the role of the intermediary could be played by attitudes, feelings and expectations which teachers experience while grading knowledge.
The investigation was carried out on a sample of 76 teachers, teaching individual subjects in Zadar primary schools. The teachers completed the following questionnaires: Goldbergs inventory for measuring the five-factor personality model (adapted short version of the scale with 50 items) (Goldberg, 1999), The Scale of External Locus of Control (Bezinović, 1988), The Self-Actualisation Scale (Šimić, 2000) and the Scale of Teacher Attitudes (Sorić and Šimić, in press).
The results have shown different combinations of predictor variables (sex, age, experience, self-actualisation dimensions, extroversion, comfort, conscientiousness, emotional stability, intellect and locus of control) for a Negative attitude toward knowledge (underestimation), Positive attitude toward knowledge (overestimation) and a Positive attitude toward grading as well as Insecurity in grading, High grading criteria and Positive feelings while grading . Therefore, it seems that teacher attitudes toward knowledge and grading, as well as feelings while grading can be explained by personality factors. In view of the fact that tolerant, fair and strict teachers differ in their attitudes, it is possible to conclude that personality factors, through attitudes, influence the way teachers grade the knowledge of their students.
Keywords
Personality factors; teacher attitudes; evaluation methods
Hrčak ID:
3245
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2004.
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