IS THERE a Significant Relationship BETWEEN TEACHER Credibility and TEACHER Effectiveness

Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive

Theses and Dissertations

1982

Is there a Significant Relationship Between eacherT Credibility and Teacher Effectiveness?

Blake D. Madsen Brigham Young University - Provo

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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Madsen, Blake D., "Is there a Significant Relationship Between eacherT Credibility and Teacher Effectiveness?" (1982). Theses and Dissertations. 4895. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4895

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IS THERE A significant relationship BETWEEN TEACHER credibility AND TEACHER effectiveness

A thesis presented to the department of communications brigham young university

in partial fulfillment of the requirementrequirementss for the degree master of arts

blake D madsen december 1982 this thesis by blake D madsen is accepted in its present form by the department of communications of brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requiaequirequirementI1 rement for the degree of fastermaster of arts ay gordon C whiting4y7 yfmittee committeecom- chairman

M dallas burnett committee member y v r 7 0J dutCUJ av datecc laffar bateman depertmentdeportmentDepertment chairman

11 acknowledgments

the completion of this research project was possible only through the cooperation and assistance of dr gordon whiting thesis committee chairman whose encouragement and advice were greatly appreciated A special thanks to dr gary coleman associate area director for his support and assistance in gathering the data the cooperation of the teachers and students in the arizonanewArizonaNew mexico north seminary district of the LDS church educational system is also greatly appreciated the timely assistance of dr albert G madsen my brother was also helpful and finally a special tribute to terry madsen my wife for the countless hours of editing and typing without whose encouragement this thesis would never have been completed

iiiliilil111 CONTENTS

page LIST OF TABLES vii chapter 1 SURVEY OF THE literature 1 introduction 1 statement of purpose 4 justification 5 the problem 6 definition of terms 7 deliniationsdelineations 10 review of the literature 10 credibility 11 teacher evaluation 16 2 KETHODSMETHODS 20 sample 20 procedure for gathering data 21 instrument 21

3 RESULTS 28 descriptive findings 28 student religiosity 28 teacher influence 30 teacher credibility 32

iv page class attitude 35 teacher effectiveness 36 relationship between variables 37 summary 4040 4 conclusions AND discussion 43 review 43 data 44 descriptive findings 45 student religiosity 46 teacher influence 46 class attitude 474 relationship between variables 48 teacher credibility 49 teacher effectiveness 50 recommendations for further study 52 summary 53 bibliography 55 APPENDIappendixesXES A LETTER FROM researcher 57 B LETTER FROM ASSOCIATE AREA DIRECTOR 58

C STUDENTS evaluation OF HIS SEMINARY TEACHER 59

D DEL BEC PROCESS WITH FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS 66

E A comparison BETWEEN IDEAL AND PRESENT SEMINARY TEACHER credibility 700

V page

F TEACHER credibility percentages 711 G TEACHER effectiveness percentages 73

H CLASS ATTITUDE percentages 1 75

VI TABLES table page 1 percentages of students answering questions indicating their religiosity 1 11 11 1 I1 29 2 religiosity factor analysis 30 3 percentages of students responding to questions on teacher influence 31 4 teacher influence factor analysis results 32 5 teacher credibility percentages and keansmeans 33 6 teacher credibility factor analysis results 34 7 class attitude factor analysis results 36 8 teacher effectiveness factor analysis results 37 9 chi square results for teacher credibility 39 10 chi square results for teacher effectiveness 39

VII chapter I11

SURVEY OF THE literature

introduction

scores of researchers and theorists have studied the relationship between source credibility and its effect upon an audience the ancient philosopher aristotle referred to credibility as ethos he indicated that ethos consisted of three factors intelligence moral character and good will he further stated that in order to have an influence on the audience a speaker must create within the audience a feeling that he the speaker has those qualities 1 he goes on to say that a man who can make himself believable and trustworthy has the most potent of all the means of persuasion the character ethos of the speaker is a cause of persuasion when the speech is so uttered as to make him worthy of belief for as a rule we trust men of probity more and more quickly about things in general while on points outside the realm of exact knowledge where opinion is dwindled we trust them absolutely we might almost affirm that his character athosethos is the most potent of the means to persuasion

ledwardiedwardedward L pross practical implications of the aristotelian concept of ethos southern spspeechech journal XVII may 1952 264 alane2lane cooper trans rhetoric by aristotle new york appleton century crofts inc 1932 appp 898 9

1 2 modern theorists have based their research on the foundation established by aristotle pross agreed with the threefoldthree fold dimension established by aristotle ethos is an indirect proof which consists of conveying to the audience a favorable impression on ones intelligence moral characcharacterter and good will the listener may form his estimate of the speakers credibility from his preconceived beliefs as to the character and reputation of the speaker from the personality and conduct of the speaker at the time of making the speech or from special devices or forms of statements in the subject matter of the speech itself3itself 3 marsh supports this claim and indicates that ethos comes from the speaker himself the credibility of the speaker is determined chiefly by the audiences estimates of the speakers intelligence his character and the degree of good will he appears to have for his listeners 4 more recent studies however indicate that there are more dimensions of source credibility than the three proposed 67 by aristotlearistotle5675- 567.567

3prossspross loc cit 4patrickbpatrickpatrick 0 marsh persuasive sheakinspeakinspeakingsneaking new york harper and row 1961967 p lt138 ajack5jack5jack L whitehead jr factors of source credibility quarterly journal of speech LIV february 1968 596359 63 ajames6james0 james C mccroskey william holdridge and J kevin toomb an instrument for measuring the source credibility of basic speech communication instructors spespeechech teacher XXIII january 1941974 263326 33 bvernon7vernonvernon E cronen and william K price affective relationships between the speaker and listener an alternative to the approach avoidance model communication monomonographsgra s XLIII march 1961976 575957 59 3 one application of source credibility that is relatively untouched in the cocommunicationmmunicationubicationuni cationcatlon field is the relationship between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness in 1974197 mccroskey holdridge and toomb developed a scale for measuring the source credibility of speech teachers they conducted extensive tests to check the validity and reliability of a source credibility in- strustrumentment they concluded that the teacher credibility instrument is a reliable measure has satisfactory construct and face validity and has predictive validity at least for projected future exposure 1108 burgoon reexam- ined the scales to determine if they were accurate in determining what she called ideal source burgoon explains in her introduction to this study in the field of speech source credibility has typically been measured by semantic differential type scales whether these scales are being used correctly to measure receiver perceptions has not been adequately examined commonly high credibility has been associated with ratings at the positive ends of bipolar adjective items the extreme being assumed as ideal this assumption of the more the better needs to be questioned it is possiblpossible that for many attributes moderation is preferred 7 she concluded that with some adjustments the scales developed by mccroskey holdridge and toomb could be

8niccroskeys&iccroskey op cit p 33 9judee K burgoon the ideal source A reexamination of source credibility measurement the central states speech journal XXVII fall 1961976 200200206206 4 used in measuring teacher credibility no other studies dealing with teacher credibility could be located the literature on teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation fills volumes the basic conclusion from the vast resources on teacher effectiveness is that there is no one overall definition of teacher effectiveness the specific goals and objectives for each situation must be determined and effectiveness defined in terms of those objectives the literature on teacher evaluation indicates that teacher evaluation techniques must also be chosen on the basis of what is to be evaluated in each situation not one method of evaluation has been found to determine the overall effectiveness of teachers the direction of modern research in this area is summarized by harris relevance for a particular criterion should be defended logically without undue apology for its lack of comprehensiveness since it seems unlikely that we will soon find a generally accepted formula for weighting school goals according to their importance for overall effectiveness relevance whether direct or indirect is the paramount attribute of any criteri- onindirect16smeasure

statement of purpurposeose

it is the main purpose of this study to determine if a significant relationship exists between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness in the L D S

lochesterchester W harris and marie R liba comps encyclopedianc op ia of educational research new york the kacmillanmacmillankacraci acikillanMillan company 1i96096 0 p 1482 5 seminary setting the main purpose will be supported by determining if significant relationships exist between teacher credibility versus sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude it will further be determined if significant relationships exist between teacher effectiveness versus sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude justification

the study of source credibility is not new since the beginning of time man has been concerned with how others see him he has long been aware that how others perceive him has a direct relationship with the effect he will have on them many studies in the area of public address have been conducted in an attempt to determine the variables of speaker credibility that have the greatest effect on a speakers ability to influence an audience the basic conclusion from these studies is that credibility can be measured under five basic dimensions competence extroversion character composure and sociability 11 research has also brought about the implicit expansion of the credibility concept making it synonymous with general person perception which now seemseemsj to be the

11 mccroskey loc cit 6 rule rather than the exception 12 in other words the whole man not just his speaking abilities are now considered in determining the factors of source credibility since teachers must be examined for more than their abilities to sway their audience with the speaking situation the expanded concept of credibility opens the door for a look at teacher-teacherss in terms of source credibility research concerning the development of scales and methods of teacher effectiveness fills volumes however no studies could be found which attempt to discover the relationship between credibility and teacher effectiveness A discovery of a strong correlation either positive or negative or lack of correlation between credibility and teacher effectiveness would be a contribution to the study of teacher evaluation it will help give direction to future research by indicating whether more or less consider- ation should be given to credibility factors when developing teacher evaluation instruments

the problem

this study will attempt to answer the following questions 1 does a significant relationship exist between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness

12jesse G delia A constructivistconstructivestConstructivest analysis of the concept of credibility quarterly journal of Speechspeech LXII december 1961976 365 7 2 does a significant relationship exist between teacher credibility and sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude 3 does a significant relationship exist between teacher effectiveness and sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude the hypotheses to be tested in this study stated in the null form are 1 no significant relationship exists between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness 2 no significant relationship exists between teacher credibility and sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude 3 no significant relationship exists between teacher effectiveness and sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude

definition of terms

the terms used extensively throughout this thesis can be looked at from two points of view conceptually and operationally the conceptual point of view is the intuitive or actual definition of the term the operational point of view is the way the term has been used and defined in this thesis the following terms are defined here teacher credibility teacher effectiveness student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude 8 the conceptual definition of teacher credibility is based on the research findings from studies on credibility as reported in the review of the literature section of this study operationally teacher credibility is defined in terms of a score indicating the difference between the ideal and the present seminary teacher the obtaining of this score is explained in the instrument section of this thesis A small score ie a small difference between ideal and present seminary teacher indicates a high teacher credibility rating A large difference indicates low teacher credibility the conceptualtheconceptual definition of teacher effectiveness is the ability the teacher has to positively influence a students behavior or attitude toward a certain goal the conceptual definition is explained in greater detail in the review of the literature the operational definition of teacher effectiveness is the score obtained on a matching scripture test which included the basic forty scripture learning scriptures that the students were expected to learn during the 1981821981 82 school year A high score on the scripture test indicates high teacher effectiveness and a low score indicates low teacher effectiveness the conceptual definition of student religiosity is the attachment a student shows to certain religious principles these attachments would be shown by beliefs and practices of these religious principles in the setting 9 of this thesis it would be indicated by the students beliefs and practices of the teachings of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints operationally student religiosity will be defined as a score obtained from a nine item scale in which the students reported the strength of their commitmentcommitment to certain religious principles higher scores indicate high student religiosity ratings and low scores indicate low student religiosity ratings teacher influence can be defined conceptually much the same as teacher effectiveness operationally it is defined as a score obtained from a nine item scale in which the students reported the amount of their teachers influence in living certain religious principles the high scores indicate a high teacher influence rating and low scores indicate a low teacher influence rating class attitude can be defined conceptually as a students positive feeling toward his classroom setting operationally class attitude is defined in terms of a score iindicatingI1 the difference between an ideal and the present seminary class the obtaining of this score is explained in the instrument section of this thesis A small score ie a small difference between ideal and present seminary class indicates a high class attitude rating A large difference indicates a low class attitude rating other terms used extensively in the thesis that may need some clarification are sex year in school 10 teacher and student sex is of course defined as male and female the year in school refers to the high school grade ie ninth tenth eleventh or twelfth the teachers were the released time seminary teachers of ththee arizona new mexico north seminary district of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints the students referred to in this thesis are the students of the above named teachers they included both sexes and grades nine ten eleven and twelve and were comprised of one class period from each teacher

deliniationsdelineations

this study will be limited to determining if significant relationships exist it is not an attempt to develop a new instrument for evaluating teachers this study was also limited to seminary teachers and seminary students and therefore the findings may not be generalized to all teaching situations the findings were dependent on self report data and therefore may not be measures of actual influence teacher effectiveness looks only at the teachers ability to teach the basic forty scripture learning scriptures and not his overall effect on the students

review of the literature

the review of the literature will contain a summary of the researchresearch on credibility and the evaluation of 11 teachers in an attempt to determine their effectiveness credibilCredicredibilitybilbli from the days of early man to our own chaotic time man has been concerned with how he appears to others he is cognizant that what others think of him has a direct relationship on his ability to influence them this is especially notinoticablenoticeablecable in the area of public speaking aristotle called this factor ethos the more modern theorists have referred to it as prestige or credibility 133 aristotles explanation of ethos is best summarized by pross ethos is an indirect proof which consists of conveying to the audience a favorable impression of ones intelligence moral character and goodwillgood will the listener may form his estimate of the speakers credibility from his preconceived beliefs as to the character and reputation of the speaker at the time of making the speech or from special devices or forms of statementsentsants in the subject matter of the speech itselfstatnstahn14 minnick agrees with this concept by indicating that ethos 11maymay be conceived as arising from three sources 1 the tangible attainments or reputation of the speaker 2 the character or personality revealed by the speaker as he utters the speech and 3 the congruence of the speakers proposals with the beliefs and attitudes of the audience 9-1155 secord adds that even how a person looks

13marsh13marsh loc cit 14pross14pross loc cit

C ivi ilawaynel5waynewayne C minnickl-m- innick the art of persuasion ad2d ed boston houghton mifflini-viifflin concomcompanydany 1968 p 62 12 acts and talks etc the whole person affects the credibility of the speaker 16 delia indicated that modern definitions of credibility must be understood in a way consistent with the everyday attitude of the naive social actor 177 he quotes walsh18walshwaish as saying that any meaningful definition of ethos must be anchored within the pre- selected and preinterpretedpreinterpretedpreinterpreted1 world of the social actor that is to say that credibility must be defined in conjunction with an understanding of the rhetorical situations as they are constituted within the social world 197 in 1963 anderson and Clevengerclevenger-ClevenclevengerogerO20to published an excellent article summarizing the studies on credibility up to that date they grouped the experimental research in five areas 1 fixed ethos vs congruity hypothesis they indicated that in earlier studies the ethical element was assumed to be a fixed value during the communication act the more recent studies however have revealed that the ethos of a speaker tends to fluctuate during the delivery

16paulpaul F secord and carl W buckman social psychology ad2d ed new york mcgraw hill 1941974 PP 444644 46 delladeila17delia17 delia op cit p 30370 181bid181bidibid 191bidibid 20akenneth2kenneth20kennethKenneth anderson and theodore clevenger jr A summary of experimental research in ethos speech monographs XXX june 1963 598597859 788 13 2 ethos assumed vs ethos measured in earlier studies researchers would compare the attitude change effected by the same speech credited to two different sources who were assumed to differ widely in credibility such as eisenhower and manson more recent studies selected the differing sources based on previous ethos tests 3 topic oriented vs topic irrelevant ethos studies conducted in this area assumed that the credibility of a speaker varied with the topic he was speaking on 4 average vs individual measures the assumption of this area of research is that speaker credibility varies among subgroups such as religion sex age etc 5 extent of audience analysis some studies involved detailed analysis of the characteristics of the audiences whereas others do not take that into considera- tion A complete summary of the experimental research of those five basic areas are contained in the above cited article and will not be reviewed here following however is the basic conclusion from their summary article the finding is almost universal that the ethos of the source is related in some way to the impact of the message this generalization applies not only to political social religious and economic issues but to matters of aesthetic judgment and personal taste as well 11 there is no evidence to show that suggestibility to prestige correlates well with intelligence education speech training subject matter competence age or sex the only variable which seems clearly 14 related to differences in suggestibility to prestige is the initial attitude toward the topic or the purpose certain characteristics of a speech affect the ethos of the speaker such noncontent stimuli as dress voice and manner apparently affect the attitude of the audience toward the speaker audiences appear to react to their evaluations of the competence of the speaker more than the speakers sincerity f these studies were basically an attempt to identify the persuasive influencesinfluences of source credibility more recent studies have directed their efforts towards identifying the factors of source credibility with the increased use and understanding of the computer factor analysis has been helpful in identifying these factors griffin explains that experimental studies of source credibility coupled with factor analysis of possible influential variables give a stronger suggestion of precise dimensions 22 he goes on to summarize the findings concerning the factors of source credibility he indicates that the factor analytic studies reveal five factors of credibility expertness reliability inten- sion dynamism and personal attraction some authors give different names to the same dimensions griffin also summarizes the research that supports the acceptance of

21ibidibid 22kimkim griffin the contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process psychological bulletin LXVIII august 1967 10710 15 these five factors whitehead indicated that clearly we can no longer regard ethos or source credibility as simply a three factor structure composed of expertness trust- worthiness and dynamism since more than three factors havjjhave emerged from the research 232 modern research has attempted to broaden the concept of credibility to include more than just speaking situations in delias summary article on credibility he indicates that standard credibility scales are now being applied to social objects as diverse as charles manson organization supervisors and classroom instructors 24 although delia is not in favor of such an expansion of the historical meaning of credibility he accepts it as a true fact

1 any notion of teachers as communicators much less as sources of influence has vanished they are to be judged globally as persons while most researchers do not report the instructional set given their subjects the implicit expansion of the credibility concept making it synonymous with general person perception seems now to be the rule rather than the exception 255 since the use of factor analysis has become such an important part of credibility research many scalscaless have been developed in an attempt to determine the factors of source credibility one of the major leaders in this area is james mccroskey in 1941974 he along with holdridge and

23whitehead23whitehead op cit p 63 della24delia24delia op cit p 364 25ibid251bid 16 toomb developed an instrument for measuring the credibility of communication instructors they made use of a semantic differential scale to measure the five dimensions of credibility competence extroversion character composure and sociability they discovered that teacher credibility could be measured under these dimensions 2620 later research supported their findings but found some weakness in some of the terms used in their scales 272 the basic conclusion however was that with the expanded definition of credibility and the increase of factors considered to contribute to credibility teachers could be measured to determine their credibility

teacher evaluation research in teacher evaluation has been an important issue since the early 1900s thousands of studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine the criterion for what is good teaching the first significant summary in this area was conducted by barrearr in 1981948 two years later domas and tideman 1950 prepared a bibliography of over one thousand of such articles other summary studies to supplement barrs original have been by morsh and wilder 1954 fulkerson 1951954 and remmers 1963 considering the numerous studies that have been conducted on this topic

2626mccroskey26iyiccroskeyMcCroskey loc cit 27burgoon27 Burgoon loc cit 17I1 very little can be concluded as to what constitutes good teaching this embarrassing conclusion is verified by howsam as he quotes ryans a distinguished writer in the field of teacher evaluations embarrassing as it may be for professional education to recognize relatively little progress has been made in rounding out this definition of effective teaching with the details which are necessary for describing competent teaching or the characteristics of effective teaching for a given educational situation or cultural settingfg20 in spite of the limited amount of concrete evidence that has come about as a result of the volumes of research that has been conducted these studies have been helpful lnin determining the general criteria of good teaching jkbell29abellabeli 7 indicated that the greatest problem in determining the appropriate criteria lies in the definition of what teacher evaluation and teacher effectiveness is numerous studies give strong evidence that a major criterion of any teacher evaluation must be the progress made by the student pine indicated that the ultimate purpose of effective evaluation is the growth and development of the student 300

28r28p B howsam new designs for research in teacher competencei-c-ompetence burlingame california teachers association 1960 p 7 29aA S barr ed the use and abuse of correlational and regression techniques in the evaluation and prediction of teacher effectiveness by allan abell wisconsin studies of the measurement and prediction of teacher effectiveness madison dembar publications inc 1961 30jgerald3gerald30geraldGeraldgeraid J pine and angelo V boy necessary onditionsconditionsonditi ons for evaluating teachers NASSP bulletin LIX december 1975 19 18 mueller referring to morsh and wilders summary of 360 selected studies on teacher effectiveness made the following statement the authors conclude that evidence of student change appears to be the most direct and reliable criterion but the problem of relating specific teacher influences to student achievement is largely unresolvedunresolved1unresolved31311 nalkerwaikerwalker-Walkerwalker232s 2 and nelsonneison33 support that belief indicating that a researcher would do well to look at some specific aspect of student change or growth when preparing a way to evaluate teachers brighton and rose expressed it this way learning can be defined satisfactorily in terms of desired changes in pupil behavior that is health knowledge skills and attitudes if the objectives of schools are to bring about learning then good teaching is what helps cause the desired changes in pupil behavior at a fastfaster rate and to a higher degree than poor teaching3teachingteachingsteaching343344rar studies in this area also conclude that an evaluation scale for all teaching situations cannot be

31dorthy31 dorthy G mueller how to evaluate teaching the journal of teacher education XXII summer igiigl1911971 229 heien32helenhelen M walker ed the measurement of teacdeacteaching effifieefficieefficiency new york the acMillanmacmillanlylIVi company 17193573 57 33kenneth33kenneth G nelson john E bicknell and paul A hedlund measures of teaching effectiveness albany the university of the state of new york the state education department 1956 34staynorStshaynorstaynoraynor brighton and gale rose increasing your accuracy in teacher evaluation englewood cliffs prentice hall inc 196591965 P 141 19 developed research indicates that one must consider specific student changes for each case to be evaluated harris said perhaps the most significant statement that can be made about any proposed criterion variable is that it is a partial criterion relevance for a particular criterion should be defended logically without undue apology for its lack of comprehensiveness 35 mueller put it this way A universal definition of good teaching pertinent to all situations and to every teacher is unrealistic therefore it follows that developing the perfect instrument with which to evaluate is impossible logic then suggests that teachers be evaluated on the basis of student pro9ressprogress toward strictly limited defined objectivesobjectives33 the difficulty of evaluating good teaching contin- ues to be a problem for research it is perhaps best summarized by george hartman the ideally efficient teacher is the one who can accomplish the largest number of important and socially desirable changes in the greatest number of pupils in the shortest possible time with the least expenditure of energy and with the maximum satisfaction in the learning process and its outcome by all concernedconcerned3737 when researchers learn to measure that teacher evaluation will have reached its apex

35harris35Harris loc cit 36nueller31viueller op cit p 231 37george37 George W hartman measuring teaching eff-efficiencyiciency among college instructors archives of psychology no 15154 july 1cac193333 8 chapter 2

METHODS

sandlesandiesamplsampisample

the population for this study were the students of seventeen released time seminary teachers in the arizona new mexico north seminary district of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints church educational system CES it will be noted that the teachers in this district are all male and reside in four states arizona new mexico colorado and utah the teaching experience for these men ranges from one to fifteen years the teachers in the district are involved principally with released time seminary programs one class from each teacher was randomly selected by the associate area director from which the data was gathered the data from two of the teachers was rejected because their students were permitted to use books on a portion of the data gathering instrument this resulted in a total sample size of 336 students from the sample 43 percent were male and 57 percent were female it was also determined that 41 percent were freshmen 16 percent were sophomores 25 percent were juniors and 18 percent were seniors

20 21

procedure for gathering atadata the data gathering instrument with a cover letter from the researcher see appendix A and one from his associate area director see appendix B was mailed t6ta the teachers during the second week of april 1982 the teachers were instructed to administer the test to one class randomly selected by the associate area director during the last week in april 1982 the instrument with a cover letter of instructions was given to the students by their teacher the students were asked to complete the information fold the data gathering instrument and place it in an envelope and seal it to assure confidentiality their teacher then gathered the envelopes and returned them to the associate area director at a district faculty meeting the next week the envelopes were then returned to the researcher for analysis

instrument

the instrument used in gathering the data consists of six parts and a cover letter of instructions see appendix C part I1 is an informational questionnaire for obtaining biographical data about the students it also contained nine likert type statements used to determine student religiosity and nine likert type statements used to determine teacher influence 22 parts II11 and liiIII111 are identical eighteen item semantic differential scales used to measure teacher credibility the statements are arranged so that approximately half the positive factors are on each side of the scale this encourages the students to read each item before responding rather than marking straight down one column this scale is an adaptation of a fourteen item scale developed by mccroskey holdridge and toombigoombitoomb to measure the source credibility of instructors of the basic speech communication course CroskeysmccroskeysMc scale contains five dimensions of credibility competence extroversion character composure and sociability the items used in this study under the dimension of competence are reliable unreliable qualified unqualified and skillful unskillful A pilot test on several students from the farmington seminary revealed competent incompetent as a difficult item for high school students to understand further testing showed skillful unskillful as a good item for its replacement the other two items were deemed understandable by the pilot test expert inexpert was deleted from the mccroskey scale for this study based on a 0 study conducted by judee burgoon2 in which she found that

ijamesljames1 james C mccroskey william holdridge and J kevin toomb an instrument for measuring the source credibility of basic speech communication instructors speech teacher XXIII january 1974197 263326 33 2judee K burgoon the ideal source A 23 the expert inexpert item is a highly deviant factor in measuring source credibility the qualified unqualified term has been added to the scale based on CroskeysmccroskeysMc research wherein he found this item to rate high in measuring competence under the dimension of extroversion the items meeklimeeklimbeek aggressive verbal quiet bold timid silent talkative were deleted based on burgeonsburgoons findings of high deviance in these items the terms outgoing withdrawn confident11confident lacks confidence energetic tired have been added because of high correlation between these items and extroversion discovered by mccroskey they also proved understandable by the students in the pilot test the dimension of character contains unselfish selfish and kind cruel as a result of CroskeysmccroskeysMc research the pilot test revealed that the students had difficulty with the item sympathetic unsympathetic it was replaced with shows concern lacks concern the dimension of composure is changed from the mccroskey scale in that calm has replaced poised as the opposite of nervous and anxious was removed in pilot testing it was found that the students had difficulty in understanding the word poised they felt calm was a better opposite of nervous making anxious an

reexamination of source credibility measurement the central states speech journal XXVII fall 1961976 200 20t20 24 unnecessary item relaxed tense is the other item of this dimension the sociability dimension contains the items of sociable unsociable cheerful gloomygloomy1 and short tempered good natured the pilot test revealed that the students felt short tempered was a better opposite for good natured than irritable used by mccroskey A sixth dimension has been added to the mccroskey scale to help adapt the scale to a church of jesus christ of latter day saints seminary setting the items of this dimension are loving hateful sense of humor boring spiritual worldly and warm cold these items were selected by asking approximately 100 seminary students of the farmington seminary to list three qualities they felt an ideal seminary teacher would have all the terms from the students were listed and the students were then asked to rank the ten most important on the list the four to be used were selected from the rankings by the del becbee process with force field analysis see appendix D the four terms were then given to the students again and they were asked to give what they felt was the best opposite to the word they had selected as ideal the opposite used by the majority of the students was selected to complete the item for the scale part II11 and part liiIII111 of the instrument were used to measure teacher credibility part IV and part V are identical ten item semantic differential scales designed to discover what the students 25 feel their present seminary class is like and compare it to what they feel the ideal seminary class is like this is used to measure class attitude the items for these scales were selected in a three step process for the first step approximately seventy students from the farmington seminary were asked to list three things they felt an ideal seminary class should have for step two all the terms were listed on a paper and seventy students from farmington seminary seventeen students from bloomfield seminary and nineteen teachers from the arizonanewArizonaNew mexico north seminary district were asked to rank the ten items they felt were most important fourteen terms were common to two of the three groups these fourteen items were narrowed to ten by using the rank each term received from the three groups and applying the del becbee process to that rank the top ten terms from this process were selected as the items to be used for the instrument the third step was selecting the opposite term for each item so that it could be made into a semantic differential scale the opposite term was selected by listing the ten items selected from step two and asking seventy students from the farmington seminary to put what they felt the opposite of that term was the opposite used by the majority of the students was selected for the instrument part VI of the instrument is a scripture test used to determine teacher effectiveness this measure was 226 selected for two main reasons first the CES places great emphasis on the students learning to recognize forty basic passages from the book of scripture they are studying that school year second from the researchers personal experience and from questioning several other seminary teachers it was discovered that very few if any of the students are familiar with the forty passages at the beginning of the year this factor made it unnecessary for a prepostpre post type test this part of the instrument was made up by arranging the forty passages in the order in which they appear in the scriptures ie doctrine and covenants 1 doctrine and covenants 10 etc the passages were then divided in four groups of ten from each group five passages were randomly selected by drawing from a hat these five passages from each group were used on the instrument A sixth reference without a matching passage was added to each group to make a normal distribution of data possible with a perfect match it made it impossible to miss one unless one answer was used twice which the instructions indicated not to do it needs to be noted that an error existed on the fourth group of ten there was not a correct answer for number four civil marriage is not in force after death the correct answer was D & C 13215 the answer provided on the test was ID & C 12815 it was discovered that the students who seemed to know the answer did one of iwotwoewo things one they 27 changed D & C 12815 to D & C 13215 or two they selected D sc C 12815 as the correct answer the students who didnt know selected another answer because of this observation and the advice of his committee chairman the researcher used the data from this portion of the instrument for analysis the results of the factor analysis supported this decision chapter 3

RESULTS

descriptive findlfindings

the data for this study was gathered in the arizona new mexico seminary district of the church educational system of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints they were collected from the students of seventeen teachers but the data from two of the teachers were rejected because they had permitted their students to use books on a portion of the data gathering instrument this resulted in a total student sample of 336 from this sample 43 percent were male and 57 percent were female it was also determined that 41 percent were freshmen 16 percent were sophomores 25 percent were juniors and 18 percent were seniors the data gathering instrument contained eighty two bits of information which were reduced to seven variables the seven variables are sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence teacher credibility class attitude and teacher effectiveness

student religiosity to determine student religiosity the students had the opportunity to respond to nine questions with often

28 29 of occasionally seldom or never responses the responses were grouped into often versus occasionally seldom and never for analysis it was found that a high percentage of the students attend their meetings and want religion as a part of their life the percentage becomes smaller for receiving counsel from their bishop and parents only about half of the students have personal prayer and family home evening and 27 percent study the scriptures often see table 11. it was also discovered that five percent of the students never have personal prayer or study the scriptures and 15 percent never attend family home evening

table 1 percentages of students answering questions indicating their religiosity

percent of often statement responses

I1 attend MIA andor priesthood meeting 92 I1 attend sacrament meeting 92 I1 attend sunday school 88 I1 want religion to be a part of my life 878 I1 accept the counsel of my bishop 80 I1 accept the counsel of my parents 71 I1 have personal prayer 54 I1 attend family home evening 45 I1 study the scriptures 27 30 A factor analysis of student religiosity showed that 42 percent of the variance was explained in the first factor 18 percent in the second 11 percent in the thi-thirdrd and 10 percent in the fourth on the basis of these results a single factor solution is sensible the variables with the highest loadings are shown in table 2

table 2 religiosity factor analysis results

mean on a four point S tandardstandardjandard factor item scale deviation loading

.8 sacrament meeting 393.9 5- 522.52 8 sunday school 383.8 57 8.8 PriesthoodmiapriesthoodMIA 383.8 5- 599.59 9.9 family home evening 313.1 ll-1101.1011-0o 3.3 .86 .4 personal prayer 333.3 8- 866 4 study the scriptures 303.0 8- 83.833 3.3 .4 accept counsel of parentsparentaparentg 373.7 5- 566.56 4 .6 accept counsel of bishop 383.8 5- 566.56 6 g want religion in life 383.8 4-w- 499.49 5.5

teacherreacher influence teacher influence was determined by responses to nine questions the students could respond with strongly agree agree disagree or strongly disagree the responses were grouped into those who strongly agree and agree versus those who disagree and strongly disagree for analysis eight of the nine statements were over 90 31 percent agree the one statement below 90 percent was 1 I would go to my teacher with a problem which was 68 percent agree see table 3 the lower percentage on this item is not a negative finding since students are strongly advised to take personal problems to parents and bishops

table 3 percentage of students responding to questions on teacher influence

statement percent who agree my teacher has helped my desire to live the word of wisdom 97 my teacher has helped my desire to stay morally clean 96 my teacher has helped my desire to marry in the temple 96 my teacher has helped my desire to attend church 93 my teacher has helped my desire to study the scriptures 93 my teacher has helped my desire to have personal prayer 92 I1 enjoy my seminary teacher 92 I1 enjoy my seminary class 90 I1 would go to my teacher with a problem 68

A factor analysis of teacher influence showed 48 percent of the variance was explained in the first factor and 14 percent in the second factor on the basis of these 32 results a single factor solution is sensible the variables with their loadings are shown in table 4

table 4 teacher influence factor analysis results

mean on a four standard factor item point scale deviatiodevideviationdeviationatioatlon loading meetings 353.5 6- 65.655 7.7 prayer 353.5 7- 700.70 7.7 word of wisdom 373.7 5- 577.57 7.7 morals 383.8 g- il61.61 7.7 .6 temple marriage 383.8 5- 511.51 6 w study scriptures 363.6 6-g- 644.64 5.5 .6 personal problems 292.9 1001.00lo-1 0-o- 000.00o 6 .6 enjoy class 353.5 7- 755.75 6 enjoy teacher 373.7 6- 622.62 7.7

teacher credibility teacher credibility was measured by finding the difference between an ideal and a present seminary teacher A comparison between the identical eighteen terms of the seven point semantic differential scale for ideal and It presentitpresent seminary teacher revealed an average of a one point difference between means A small difference in means indicates a high teacher credibility score the small

.7 average mean 7 and the highM average percentage 84 percent of students giving credibility scores smaller than the mean gives evidence of a negatively skewed curve 33 see table 5 for those interested in descriptive findingfindings8 see appendix E which provides the means for ideal and present teacher separately

table 5 teacher credibility percentages and means

percent of respondentsresspondeesponde ntsants with mean difference item credibilitycredibilicredibility ratiiabingatingne smaller between real rated than the mean and idealaidealbidea

confident 90 5.5 sociablesociable 89 5.5 cheerful 88 6.6 shows concern 88 7.7 reliable 87 6.6 outgoing 87 6.6 energetic 87 6.6 lovingdoving 86 7.7 kind 86 6.6 spiritual 86 6.6 skillful 85 7.7 relaxed 83 8.8 warm 83 7.7 selfishunselfishJn 83 8.8 sense of humor 82 8.8 calm 77 9.9 goodgrood natured 76 iiil111.1 qualified 75 5.5 average 84 7.7 ranked according to greatest percentage smaller than the mean bsmallysmallmall mean a high score malimaii indicates teacher credibility 34 A factor analysis farforfozarzorfocroc r the eighteen items of teacher credibility revealed that 49 percent of the variance was explained in the first factor the next factor accounted for only six percent of the variance and the rest of the factors each accounted for 1lessess than six percent on the basis of these results a single factor solution is sensible see table 66.

table 6 teacher credibility factor analysis results

mean difdlfdifferendifferedfferenerencearencece betweebetweenm ideal and standard factor item real teacher deviation loading unselfish 8.8 131.3 6.6 sociable 5.5 121.2 6.6 calm 9.9 131.3 5.5 reliable 6.6 iiil111.1 7.7 outgoing 6.6 ilii111.1 7.7 loving 7.7 iiil111.1 7.7 kind 6.6 iiil111.1 7.7 cheerful 6.6 101.0loio 7.7 relaxed 8.8 lill111.1 6.6 warm 7.7 lill111.1 7.7 qualified 5.5 illi111.1 8.8 confident 5.5 101.0loio 7.7 sense of humor 7.7 131.3ljij 7.7 shows concern 7.7 lill111.1 7.7 good natured llli111.1 151.5 7.7 skillful 7.7 131.3ijlj 6.6 energetic 6.6 iili111.1 7.7 spirspiritualitualigual 6.6 lill111.1 7.7 small mean indicates high teacher credibility score 35 class attitude class attitude was measured by finding the difference between an ideal and a present seminary class A comparicomparisonI1 son between the identical ten terms of the seven point semantic differential scale for ideal and present seminary class revealed an average of a two point difference between means A small difference in means indicates a high class attitude score the small average mean 15151.5 sndanda-s nd the high average percentage ofoflkofl studentsofstudents 72 percent giving class attitude scores smaller than the mean gives evidence of a negatively skewed curve see table 7 for a list of the means the factor analysis of class attitude indicated that 49 percent of the variance was explained in the first factorfactory ten percent for the second factor and on down to three percent in the last factor on the basis of these results a single factor solution is sensible the variables with their loadings are shown in table 7 the term few tests wit-withinhin class attitude appears to be a deviant from the one factor solution the loading of this term for the first factor was much lower than loadings for the rest of the terms the loadings for few tests were evenly distributed over the four factors 3.3 s i-l- 10.10 2 3.3 however since few tests is the only term showing such deviance a one factor solution still seems reasonable 36

table 7 class attitude factor analysis results

mean difdlfdifferenceferencearence between ideal and standard factor item real class deviation loading teachable 161.6lgig 141.4lwiw 8.8 fun llli111.1 151.5 6.6 spiritual 161.6iglg 141.4iwlw 7.7 participates 131.3 141.4iwlw 7.7 cooperative 141.4iwlw 141.4iwlw 8.8 reverent 212.1 161.6lgig 7.7 few tests 151.5 161.6iglg 3.3 friendly ilii111.1 131.3 6.6 listens 161.6iglg 141.4iwlw 8.8 prepared 191.9lgig 151.5 7.7 A small mean indicates a high class attitude score

teacher effectiveness teacher effectiveness was determined by a scripture test the test was assigned a letter grade according to the percentage received on the test those who obtained a score of 100 percent to 90 percent received an A from 89 percent to 80 percent a B 79 percent to 65 percent a

ac9cC 11 64 percent to 50 percent a D and below 50 percent an E using this letter grading method 20 percent of the students received an A grade 18 percent a B grade 16 percent a C grade 7 percent a D grade and 39 percent an E grade A factor analysis revealed that 69 1 37 percent of the variance was explained in the first factor 14 percent in the second 9 percent in the third and 8 percent in the last on this basis a single factor solution is sensible the variables with their loadings are shown in table 8

table 8 teacher effectiveness factor analysis results

scripturescri iturepture mean number stastandardedardndard factor groupgro up of correct answeranswerss deviationdevlation loading

1group one 393.9 1191.9iglg 9.9 8.8 groupIroup two 373.7 1191.9ig 9.9 8.8

1-group13roup three 333.3 191.9lgig1 9.9 8.8 group four 373.7 1181.88.8 7.7

six points possible for each group

relationshirelationshiprelationshipsDs between variables A major concern of this thesis was to determine if significant relationships exist between teacher credibility versus sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence class attitude and teacher effectiveness another major concern was to determine if significant relationships exist between teacher effectiveness versus sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude chi square tests for independence were used to determine if significant relationships exist inji 38 order to calculate chi square the scores from student religireligareligiosityI1 ositydosity teacher influence teacher credibility and class attitude were used to divide the teachers into high medium and low ratings creating 3 by X matrices the ratings were determined by placing approximately 33 percent of the students in each group the groups for teacher effectiveness were determined by a grading process in which 100 percent to 90 percent was an A 89 percent to 80 percent was a B 79 percent to 65 percent was a C 64 percent to 50 percent was a D and below 50 percent was an 11vE of the A B and C students were grouped for a high rating and the D and E students were grouped for a low rating the chi square tests between teacher credibility and the other major variables produced significant relation-

ships at the 0- 05.055 level with the variables student religiosity teacher influence class attitude and teacher effectiveness the tests showed no significance for sex and year in school see table 99. the chi square tests between teacher effectiveness

and the other major variables were significant at the 0- 05.055 level with the variables sex student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude the tests showed no significance for year in school see table io1010. 39

table 9 chi square results for teacher credibility

signifsigniasignificanceicanceacance chi square df level sex 26-2602.600 2 2- 27.277 tearyear in school 9019.01g-oloi 6 17.17 student religiosity 522452.24522-4 4 0- 0000000.0000 teacher influence 769076.90769-0 4 0-o- 0000000.0000ooo class attitude 280428.04280-4 4 0- 0000000.0000 teacher effectiveness 8058.0580-5 2 0- 022.02 significalsignificansignificantt relationships

table 10 chi square results for teacher effectiveness

significance chi square df level

1 sex 5295.2952-9 0- 022.02 year in school 2492.4924-9 3 4- 488.48

student religiosity 7337.3373-3 2 0-o- 03.033o teacher influence 178817.88178-8 2 0001.0001

class attitude 150415.04150-4 2 0- 0005.0005005 significant relationships 40 an inspection of the percentages of the significant relationships between teacher credibility and the other variables revealed that the more religious students rated the teacher higher on credibility than the less religious students see appendix F the students who were greatly influenced by the teacher rated him as more highly credible than those less influenced by him the students who felt good about the class rated the teacher higher in credibility than the students who didnt care for the class the students that rated the teacher high in credibility also scored higher on the teacher effectiveness test an inspection of the percentages for the relationships with teacher effectiveness and the other variablesvariavarla blesbies revealed that females do better than males the more religious students do better than the less religious students the students who are highly influenced by the teacher do better than those less influenced and those with a good class attitude do better than those with a poor class attitude see appendix G analysis of the significant chi square tests produced no surprises all the significant results were in the directions expected sunnasunmasummasummary in summary a factor analysis of the data gave strong evidence that student religiosity teacher influence teacher credibility class attitude and teacher effectiveness are each single factor solutions using the chi square 41 test for independence significant relationships were found between teacher credibility versus the variables student religiosity teacher influence class attitude and teacher effectiveness teacher effectiveness was also significant with the variables sex student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude an inspection of the percentages shows that the significant relationships are what might be expected eg good attitudes go with better berfperfperformancenancemanceorarmanceormance etc the analysis also indicated that student religiosity is generally high wuth the exception of attending family home evening personal prayer and studying the scriptures over 90 percent of the students feel that their teachers influence has been a positive experience in their lives however only 68 percent are willing to go to their teacher with a problem the lower percentage is favorable here since students are counseled to go to parents and bishops with personal problems the analysis revealed an average of a one point difference between ideal and present teacher on a seven point semantic differential scale an average of a two point difference was found between the ideal and present class on a seven point semantic differential scale it was also found that about one half of the students did poorly on the scripture test which was the criterion of teacher effectiveness 42 the lowest teacher rating was for teacher effectiveness where 54 percent of the students rated the teacher high and 46 percent low this was the only variable where the rating was determined by student performance rather than by self report attitude scales that is to say that on the average the teachers were rated much higher by the students where feelings were expressed the curves were negatively skewed for each variable chapter 4

conclusions AND discussion

review

the main concern for this thesis was to determine if a significant relationship exists between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness the survey of the literature consisted of a review of the information on credibility and teacher evaluation the review on credi bilityability dated back to aristotle in which he referred to credibility as ethos aristotle claimed that there were three dimensions of credibility intelligence moral character and good will later researchers supported aristotles claim indicating that the credibility of a speaker is determined chiefly by the audiences estimates of the speakers intelligence his character and the degree of good will he appears to have for his listeners 1 1 however with the invention of the computer and more effective methods of factor analysis modern researchers feel now that more than three dimensions exist james mccroskey one of the noted leaders in modern credibility

ipatricktpatrickbpatricktpatrick 0 marsh persuasive SpespeakingakinEaking new york harper and row 1961967 p 138

43 44 studies gives evidence of five dimensions in credibility competence extroversion character composure and sociability most modern theorists of credibility support CroskeysmccroskeymccroskeysMc s findingsandingsfindings the literature on teacher evaluation is extensive in spite of the vast amount of research in this area what is good teaching has not been defined the basic conclusion from the research is that there can be no broad definition of a good teacher or good teaching in all situations each situation must have specific goals and objectives and good teaching defined within those objectives

data

the population for the study were the students of fifteen seminary teachers of the arizonanewArizonaNew mexico north seminary district the data was gathered by the following process the data gathering instrument was mailed to the teachers with a cover letter from the associate area director and the researcher the teachers then administered the instrument to their students during the last week in april 1982 the students placed the completed instrument in a sealed envelope and returned it to the teacher the teacher returned it to the associate area director at a district faculty meeting the week following the administraadminis tra tion of the instrument all the data was then given to the 45 researcher for analysis the instrument consisted of six parts and a cover letter of instructions part I1 consisted of nine biographical likert type questions to determine student religiosity and nine likert type questions to determine teacher influence part II11 and part lilIII111 consisted of identical eighteen item semantic differential statements these two parts were used to determine teacher credibility part IV and part V consisted of identical ten item semantic differential statements these two parts were used to determine class attitude part VI consisted of a scripture test used to determidetermineI1 ne teacher effectiveness the instrument contained eighty two bits of information which were collapsed into seven variables sex year in school student religiosity teacher influence teacher credibility class attitude and teacher effectiveness descriptive findlfindings

the total sample size for this study was 336 high school age seminary students from this sample 43 percent were male and 57 percent were female these percentages could indicate a trend that fewer males than females enroll in seminary the sample was also made up of 41 percent freshmen 16 percent sophomores 25 percent juniors and 18 percent seniors these percentages could also indicate a trend it appears that many students drop seminary after I1 46 their freshman year pick it up again their junior year and drop it again their senior year these percentages reflect trends but do not contain sufficient evidence to make definite conclusions

student religiositreligiosity the findings in relation to student religiosity indicate that most seminary students are religiously oriented they are very active in attendance at meetings nearly 90 percent students apparently find it easier to receive counsel from their bishop 80 percent than from their parents 711 percent the apparent problem areas of student religiosity are personal prayer 54 percent attending family home evening 45 percent and studying the scriptures 272 percent the lack of scripture study is supported by the teacher effectiveness score where 54 percent of the students received high scores even though only one fourth of the students study the scriptures often about one half of them scored high on scripture learning this would give evidence that much learning is taking place in seminary or other situations where scripture study is taking place the low percentage attending home evening could indicate that parents are not doing their part

teacher influence an inspectinspectionibn of the percentages regarding teacher influence gives evidence that the students feel their 474 teacher is influencing their lives all but one of the statements were responded to favorably by 90 percent or more of the students the lower percentage 68 percent on the one statement 1 I would go to my teacher with a problem might be explained by the fact that students are encouraged to take personal problems to their parents or bishop rather than to the seminary teacher A comparison between the percentages of student religiosity and teacher influence on statements common to both variables gives evidence of possible weakness of a self report type instrument ninety three percent of the students indicated that their teacher has increased their desire to study the scriptures and yet only 54 percent claim to be having personal prayer and 272 percent claim to be studying the scriptures to make this measure more accurate one may need to add a measure of degree of influence the teacher is having on the student class attitude the class attitude scale was designed to determine how the students felt about their present seminary class compared to an ideal seminary class the results from these scales indicated that the majority of the students 72 percent felt their present class was close to ideal however the response to the statement 1 I enjoy my seminary class from the teacher influence variable indicated that 90 percent of the students showed favorabilityfavorability toward their 48 seminary class the multiple question method appears to c-givelive more depth to class attitude than a one question approach

relationships between variables

the survey of the literature revealed that credibility was found to be a five dimentionaldimensionaldimentional variable extensive research was conducted by mccroskey to see if this conclusion could be applied in terms of teacher credibility CroskeysmccroskeysMc use of factor analysis gave further evidence that teacher credibility has five dimensions however a factor analysis of the credibility instrument in this study revealed that in the case of seminary teacher credibility there is only one dimension this gives evidence that in the evaluation of seminary teachers a breakdown of credibility dimensions is not necessary judee burgoon questioned the validity of the use of semantic differential scales based on the assumption that the extremes of the scale were the best or the worst she contended that the middle may be the besbest in some cases her findings supported her claims in this study two identical semantic differential scales were used the first was to measure the credibility of the present teacher and the second to determine what students felt an ideal teacher would be like an inspection of the means for the ideal 49 teacher revealed that on a seven point scale the average mean was 696.9gg with an average of 83 percent of the students rating the ideal teacher above the mean the range of means was 646.4gw to 696.9gg with a range of 700 percent to 91 percent this woul-woulddid indicate that seminary students do look at the extremes of the scale as being best or worst this evidence fails to support mrs burgeonsburgoons findings the findings also suggest that the need for a separate scale to measure ideal is not necessary in seminary teacher evaluation A comparison between the means of the ideal and present seminary teacher reveals less than an average of a one unit difference on the seven point semantic differential scale this gives evidence that a large majority of seminary students look at their teacher as a very credible source it iisS possible that this credibility extends beyond religious matters this possiblitypossibility is supported by an inspection of the means and factor analysis results of the teacher credibility scale the teacher credibility rated high on all items in the scale and was determined to be a one factor solution before a definite conclusion could be drawn however further research specifically aimed at this matter would be necessary

teacher credibicredibility chi square results revealed significant relationships between teacher credibility versus student religiosity 50 teacher influence and class attitude there was no significant relationship between teacher credibility versus sex or year in school an inspection of the percentages indicates that the more religious students rate their teacher higher on credibility the students more influenced by the teacher rate their teacher higher on credibility and those students with a positive class attitude rate their teacher high on credibility the converse is true for each case as well these outcomes were as expected A simple cause effect relationship cannot be assumed between these variables

teacher effectiveness teacher effectiveness was determined in this study by the success of the students on a scripture test it was found that 54 percent of the students scored high on the test and 46 percent scored low this would indicate that the teachers are being effective as defined here with about one half of the students chi square results revealed significant relationships between teacher effectiveness versus sex student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude no significant relationship existed between teacher effectiveness versus year in school an inspection of the percentages gave evidence that the teachers were more effective with the more religious students than with the less religious students they were more effective with the students who 51 admit to being more influenced by the teacher and they were more effective with the students who liked the class these relationships were as expected the evidence here also supports a cause effect relationship between teacher effectiveness and the other variables that is to say that religiosity and positive class attitude will cause a student to do better on the scriscripturesI1 ptures and if a student allows his teacher to influence him he will do better on the scriptures the major purpose of the thesis was to determine if a significant relationship exists between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness the chi square test resulted

in a significant relationship at the 0- 021021evel022.02 evellevellevei of significance an inspection of the percentages reveal that the more credible teachers are more effective than the less credible teachers these results give evidence that credibility is an important factor contributing to the success of seminary teachers one weakness of these findings could be that the teachers were rated so closely to ideal this does not nullify this study but indicates a need to refine the credibility measures and gear them more toward the seminary situation and a single dimension it also indicates the need for a broader measure of teacher efectivenessactivenesseffectivenessf 52

recommendations for further stustudy

the study on credibility and teacher effectiveness is not yet complete this study has established some ground work for future research related to these areas the findings from the measure of student religiosity revealed low percentages of students having personal prayer attending family home evenings and studying the scriptures the percentages on attendance at meetings were very high there appears to beabe a pattern of personal religiosity versus public religiosity one would do well to discover why there is such a difference between the self report data on personal and public religiosity the study revealed that for seminary teachers there is only one dimension of credibility as opposed to other studies which reveal several dimensions of credibility one could explore the reasons for only one dimension in this setting first would be to compare high school with college students to see if age or year in school affects the number of dimensions of credibility second would be to compare LDS students with non LDS students to determine if religion affects the number of dimensions of credibility third would be to compare a seminary class with a secular class to see if class setting affects the number of dimen sions of credibility this study was designed to look at teacher effectiveness in terms of the narrow area of scripture learning A 53 significant study would be to broaden the definition to include such things as effect on general religious knowledge and effect on student religiosity the use of a prepostpre post test would be useful to this type of study another recommendation would be to compare different teaching styles and determine if style influences teacher effectiveness there are basically two styles of teaching semiseminaryI1 nary first is the fun and games and not much work approach second is the more serious work hard approach A comparison between these two styles and their effectiveness would be another recommendation for future study one final recommendation would be to take a closer look at year in school and its effects on other variables although this variable did not show a significant relationship with teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness a pattern did begin to develop sophomores had the poorest teacher effectiveness score and the lowest teacher credibility rating they also had the lowest class attitude rating when year in school was analyzed with class attitude see appendixes F G and H A study on the attitudes of sophomores would be a worthy contribution to the research on teacher evaluation

sumnarsummarsummary

this thesis was designedto to determine if a significant relationship exists between credibility and effectiveness in seminary teachers I1 54 chi square tests produced significant relationships between teacher credibility and the following student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude the tests also produced significant relationships between teacher effectiveness and these variables sex student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude these relationships largely were what one would expect the chi square test also produced a significant relationship between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness thus the major expectation of the thesis was supported by the data more credible seminary teachers are more effective bibliography

periodicals anderson kenneth and theodore clevenger jr A summary mono of experimental research in ethos speechch monographsa-ragrapa XXX june 1963 597859 78 burgoon judee K the ideal source A reexamination of source credibility measurement the central states speech journal XXVII fall 1976 200 206 Clcronenronen vernon E and william K price affective rela- tiontionshipsships between the speaker and listener an alternative to the approach avoidance model communication Monomonographmonographsmonograpgrap s XLIII harchdiarchNiarchmarchniarch 1976 575957 59 delia jesse G A constructivistconstructivestConstructivest analysis of the concept of credibility quarterly journal of speech LXII december 1976 365 riffingriffin3 kinkimkirnkinnkimm the contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process psychological bulletin LXVIII august 1967 107

hartmandartman george W measuring teaching efficiency among college instructors archives of Psychpsycholopsychologyolo no 15154 july 1933 8 huberkuber george and A L delbecq guidelines for combining the judgments of individual group members in decision conferences academy of management journal 3 152 june 1972 icoroskeyCroskeyiccroskeymccroskey james C william holdridge and J kevin toomb an instrument for measuring the source credibility of basic speech communication instructors speech teacher XXIII january 1974 263326 33 mueller dorthy G how to evaluate teaching the journal of teacher education XXII sunSursummerziermier 1971 229 pine gerald J and angelo V boy necessary conditions lorforrorzorX evaluating teachers NASSP bulletin LIX december 197519751 19 55 56 pross edward L practical implications of the aristotelian concept of ethos southern speechch journal XVII may 1952 264 whitehead jack L jr factors of source credibility quarterly journal of speech LIV february 1968 596359 63

books barr A S ed the use and abuse of correlational and regression techniques in the evaluation and prediction of teacher effectiveness by allan abell wisconsin studies of the measurement and prediction of teacher effectiveness 1961 brighton Stshaynorstaynoraynor and gale rose increasing your accuraccoraccuracy in teacher evaluation englewood cliffs prentice hall inc 1965 cooper lane trans rhetoric by aristotle new york appleton century crofts inc 1932 delbecq andre L andrew H van de ven and david H gustafson group echniquestechniquesT for program planning Glenglenviewview illinois scott foresman and company 1975 harris chester W and harlebariemarie R liba comps encylencycencyclopedialodiodlopediaedla of educational research new york the macmillan company 1960 howsam R B new designs for research in teacher cocompetenceetenceegence burlingame california teachers association 1919600 marsh patrick 0 persuasive speaking new york harper and row 1967 minnick wayne C the art of persuasion ad2d ed boston houghton mifflin company 1968 nelson kenneth G john E bicknell and paul A hedlund measures of teaching effectiveness albany the university of the state of new york the state education department 1956 secord paul F and carl W buckman social psyapsypsychologycholo gy ad2d ed new york mcgraw hill 197419 walker helen ni ed the measurement of teachteaching effi- ciecleciency new york the acMillanmacmillanLM company 1935 church educational 57 thenievie church of jesus christ systemSYstemofstempfof latter day saints APPENDIX A

march 29 1982

dear brethren As garys letter indicates I1 am attempting to complete my mastermasters degree this summer part of my study involves the studentstudencstudents s evaluation of his seminary teacher I1 appreciate your support in helping me gather this information be assured that I1 will not be able to nor attempt to link the information to you only gary will know your teacher ID number when giving the test assure the students that you will not see their paper be sure they understand that the teacher ID number needs to go on the envelope and the test remind them that the test is to be sealed inside the envelope and returned to you the test will take ffromrom 15 to 20 minutes thanks again for your help if you desire feedback on the findings of this study let gary know when you return the envelopes to him at the district faculty meeting in may if you have any questions give me a call 5053253339505 325 3339 sincerely z s blake D madsen farmington seminary

bdmcw enc 1

clchurchlurch lucatieclucatiEceducationalonalonai 58 the church of jesus christ systemS 7semofof latter day saints APPENDIX B

march 4 1982

administrative personnel arizonanewArizonaNew mexico north seminary district dear brethren we have an opportunity to gain a number of insights into our teaching through the use of a teacher evaluation tool here in our district brother blake madsen of the farmington seminary is working on a novel approach to teacher evaluation that I1 feel will be of benefit to all of us he is looking at areas dealing with teacher credibility and student learning blake is using this study to complete his masters degree brother 1 we beckert brother bradshaw and I have reviewed his plan and feel 0 good about gathering the data he needs from teachers in this district we therefore ask you to assist in the data gathering process we need the following assistance 1 please administer the questionnaire to your students between april 19 and april 30 2 please select one of your larger classes to complete the questionnaire 3 all data will remain confidential your teacher identification number will be this is to insure that the class and teacher scores can be correlated 4 insure that each questionnaire is placed in the envelope provided for each student 5 return all envelopes and questionnaires to me on may 6 in page arizona at our district faculty meeting brethren ours is a great work it is a joy for me to be associated with each of you thank you for your help in this matter sincerelysincdrelyi your brother

L gary J colamcolpmcolamancolomanan associate CES area director arizonanewArizonraNew mexico north seminary district gjccw enc

232232323211 north dustin farmington new mexico 87401 e 505505325725050532532372503253233257-7250250 59

APPENDIX C

STUDENTS evaluation OF HIS SEMINARY TEACHER

instructions 1 put your teachers ID number in the space provided on part I1 this number will be given to you by your teacher 2 read the instructions for each part of the evaluation carefully 53 answer all questions quickly and honestly your teacher will not see your paper and there will be no way for you to be identified by the one who will score it 4 when you have completed the evaluation please fold it neatly and place it in the envelope provided seal it and put the teachers ID number on the outside of the envelope turn the envelope in to your teacher thank you for your help your cooperation is appreciated 6060

TEACHER ID NUMBER for scoring 1 2 ipurposespurposes PART I1 only instructions for each item below circle the one that applieses to youycu sex male female 3 grade freshman sophomore junior senior 4 number of years you have taken seminary include this year 1 2 3 4 i 5 instructions for each statement below circle the letter thatat best represents the frequency of your involvement in the activity described A often B occasionally C seldom D never

I1 attend sacramentsacranentament meeting A B C D 6 I1 attend sunday school A B C D 7 I1 attend mutual and priesthood meeting on sunday A B C D

I1 attend family home evening A B C D 9 I1 have personal prayers A B C D 10t5ta I1 study the scriptures A B C D TT I1 accept the counsel of my parents A B C D 12T I1 accept the counsel of my bishop and other church leaders A B C D 13T I1 want religion to be a part of my life A B C D 14 instructionsinstructions for each statement below circle the letter thatat best scribesdescribesie your attitude about the statestatementrientmient A strongly agreetee 13 mildly agree C mildly disagree D strongly disagreee my seminary teacher has strengthened my desire

to attend my church meetings A B C D 15T to have personal prayer A B C D 16 to live the word of wisdom A B C D 7tat17 to be morally clean A B C D to18 to be married in the temple A B C D W19 to study the scriptures A B C D 20sr I1 can go to my seminary teacher with a personal problem A B C D 21FT I1 enjoy my seminary class A B C D 22r I1 enjoy my seminary teacher A B C D TT23 411L

PART II11 tourYOUYOUR SEMINARY TEACMTEACHER for scoring purposes only instructions the following are a series of attituattitudede scales you are asked to evaluate your seminary teacher in terms of the adjectives on each scale for example if you think your seminarseminaryy teacher is very tall you eightnightmight mark the following scale as below tall YX short of course if you consider your seminary teacher to be shorter you would mark your XIX nearer the short adjective the middle space on each scale should be considered average mark this space if you feel both adjectives apply equally to your seminary teacher selfish unselfish 257247 unsociable sociable 25 calm nervous unreliable reliable 27 withdrawn outgoing hateful loving 29 kind cruel 30 cheerful gloomy 31 tense relaxed 32 warm cold 33 unqualified qualified confident lacks confidence 35T sense of humor baringboring 375-37- shows concern lacks concern W377 short tempered good natured 37 skillful unskillful 39 lazy energetic 40 worldly spiritual 62

PART III111 THE IDEAL SEMINARY TEACHER for scoring purposes only instructions the following are a series of attitude scales you are asked to evaluate what you feel is an ideal seminary teacher in terms of the adjectives below for example if you think the ideal seminary teacher should be very tall you might mark the following scale as below tall X short of course if you feel the ideal seminary teacher should be shorter you would mark your xivXIIX nearer the short adjective the middle space on each scale should be considered average mark this space if you feel both adjectives apply equally to the ideal seminary teacher selfish unselfish 72 unsociable sociable 73 calm nervous unreliable reliable withdrawn outgoing hateful loving kind cruel cheerful gloomy 79 tense relaxed 50 warm cold 51 unqualified qualified 52 confident lacks confidence 53 sense of humor boring 57 shows concern lacks concern 55 short tempered good natured 757 skillful unskillful 57 lazy energetic 757- worldly spiritualsuinsoin tualtuai 59 7-

PART IV YOUR SEMINARY CLASS for scoring purposes only instructions the following are a series of attitude scales you are asked to evaluate your present seminary class for each item for example if you feel that your seminary class is somewhat honest you might mark the following scale as below honest X dishonest of course if you feel that your seminary class is more honest you would mark your 11x11X nearer the honest adjective the middle space on each scale should be considered average mark this space if you feel both adjectives apply equally to your seminary class teachable unteachable 60 fun boring 6 1 unspiritual spiritual participates lacks participation 63 uncooperative cooperative T noisy reverent 65 has few tests has many tests 6600oo mean friendly 67 ingores teacher listens 68r prepared unprepared 9 64

PART V THE IDEAL SEMINARY CLASS forzorron scoring purposesposesururposes only instructions the following are a series of attitude scales you are asked to evaluate what you feel is the ideal seminary class for each item for example if you feel that the ideal seminary class should be totally honest you might mark the following scale as below honest X dishonest of course if you feel that the ideal seminary class should be less than totally honest you would mark your IIXIIX nearer the dishonest adjective the middle space on each scale should be considered average makmark this space if you feel both adjectives apply equally to the ideal seminary class teachable unteachable 70 fun boring W71 unspiritual spiritual 7tat72 participates lacks participation 7tat73 uncooperative cooperative noisy reverent 75 has few tests has many tests 77-T mean friendly W77 ingores teacher listens prepared unprepared 79T 665D

PART VI for scaringscoring purposes only instructions listed below are twenty four scriptures which you were asked to learn this year within each group match the key concept with the correct scripture each blank will have only one letter in it there will be one letter in each group that will not be used group 1 A dacd&c 137 1 endure to the end to have eternal life B dacd&c 147 2 christs suffering for us caused him to C dacd&c 1916191916 19 bleed from every pore 3 the lord forgets our sins if we confess D dacd&c 2037 them and fforsake them 4 the requirerequirerentsrequirementsrentsments for baptism E dacd&c 5826295826 29 5 A slothful servant must be commanded F dacd&c 842438425842435842 43 in all things 80 group 2 A dacd&c 59913599 13 1 we must give an account of our B dacd&c 7234723 4 stewardship 2 sabbath day responsibilities C dac 7622247622 24 iteibeibb 3 the lord is bound by our obedience D dacd&c 76111 4 where much is given much is required E dacd&c 823 5 we are judged according to our works F dacd&c 8210 group 3 A dacd&c 8433398433 39 1 teach each other diligently in all B dacd&c 8878818878 81 things and warn our neighbors 2 truth is knowledge of past present C dacd&c 9324 and future 3 we are a light to all nations and the D dacd&c 115561155 6 stakes of zion are to be a place of refuge 4 the oath and covenant of the priesthood E dacd&c 1194 5 tithing is one tenth of our interest F dacd&c 121344112134 41 annually sr group 4 A dacd&c 12815

1 joseph smith story of the first B dacd&c 130181913018 19 vision 2 john the baptist confers the aaronic c- dacd&cd 130222313022 23 priesthood on joseph smith 303 we take our knowledge with us when we D abraham 32223322 23 die 404 civil marriage is not in force after eoS JSHJS H 169 death 505 the godhead foF JSHJS H 152015 20 73 66

APPENDIX D del becbee process with force field analysis

Introintroducintroduceintroductoryduc tory nonotete the author of this explanation of the del becbee process with force field analysis is unknown refer to the bibliography under andre L delbecq for the original source

introduction the del becbeeeee decision making process is designed to insure each participant opportunity for personal input some have referred to it as organized brainstorming A description of the process will likely serve as an explanation as well theoretically this process could involve any number of participants it is usually suggested that the group size be limited to 102010 20 individuals 10 preferrably if the group should be larger than this it is quite effective to simply divide into two groups and go through the process simultaneously in separate locations

setting the process in motion usually the group will be sitting in a circle or in some order one individual serves as scribe and notes each and every suggestion made by the members of the group the process begins with a question or request for suggestions and input one individual will begin and then opportunity will be given to each other participant in order going around the circle as many times as needed until each 676 individual has exhausted his personal contributions with this process each participant has the chance to input all of his suggestions at this point there should be a written list of the items to be reviewed the next step is one of priori tizatizationtion this is quite easily accomplished by asking each individual in the group to rank the 5 most important items to him with a ranking of 1 through 5 with 1111i11 being the most important and 2 the next most important while the individuals are ranking the items the scribe will write out the items on a chart or chalk board see sample once the chart is completed a roll call can be made and the individual rankings of the items noted with a tally mark on the appropriate space As can be seen on the sample sheet the rankings are weighted with the 1 rankings having a 5xax weight the as2s a 4xax weight etc now the tally totals can be multiplied by the appropriate weightings and a total item score derived it is now extremely easy to set up the priorities according to their point totals force field analysis A force field analysis is a process of getting something done that needs to be done it should occur after a priority has been established this analysis consists of three steps this process would need to be done on each individual item 68 stestedstep one determine what the end product or goal is to the item scribedescribede it specifically and objectively include whenever possible a desired date of completion you are describing where you want to go step two the next step is vital and in it you will list the barriers you perceive between you and the goal outlined in step one be sure to list all the barriers and then prioritize them so that they can be worked on one at a time step three isolate one of the barriers and go to work deciding on the means to overcome that barrier again this list should include as many specific how tos as can be thought of step four the final step should be obvious go to work and do it it stands to reason that if we can do those things to overcome the identified barriers we can then reach our goal

this process will then be repeated as many times as needed until all is accomplished that is desired I1ITEMTEiw GOAL BARRIERS MEANS 69

APPENDIX D continued

DEL BEC PROCESS

topic date group leader

1 2 4 TOTAL ITEMS rank i 3- 5 WEIGHT x5xa x4xa x3ix2x3xa x2xa XI

& 700 o

APPENDIX E A comparison between ideal and present seminary teacher credibility

ideal teacher present teacher above above mean mean mean mean unselfish 666.6gg 79 616.1gigl 79 sociable 686.8 86 646.4gw 87 calm 666.6gg 78 606.0go 6060 reliable 696.9gg 91 646.4gw 85 outgoing 676.7 81 636.3 84 loving 686.8 85 626.2 83 kind 686.8 87 646.4gw 85 cheerful 686.8 88 646.4gw 85 relaxed 666.6gg 77 616.1gi 79 warm 676.7 83 616.1glgi 78 qualified 686.8 89 656.5 88 confident 686.8 86 656.5 89 sense of humor 686.8 88 626.2 80 shows concern 666.6gg 85 636.3gj 86 good natured 666.6gg 79 595.9 74 skillful 676.7 82 626.2 82 energetic 6.767 81 6.363 83 67 1 63 spiritual 646.4gw 70 646.4gw 84 average 676.7 83 636.3 82

the possible range was from zero to seven 71

APPENDIX F teacher credibility percentages

teacher credibility high medium low male M30 32 38 sexex

female 37 32 331

teacher credibility

high henediummediumdi urnurmumm low freshman 38 30 32 fearrearyear in sophomore 28 25 W4 school junior 26 40non o M34

senior 39 31 30

teacher credibility high medium low high 41wiswio410 49 10 student reli medium 36 31 33 glositygiositygulosity low 25 17 5658 72

APPENDIX F continued

teacher credibility high medium low high 56w 32 12 teacher influence medium 26 411 33 low 16 20 646

teacher credibility high medium low

high 51 26 23210 class attitude medium F 29 M34 37

low F 181 38 W44

teacher credibility high medium low

high 37 35 28 teacher effectiveness low 30 28 422 73

APPENDIX G teacher effectiveness percentages

teacher effectiveness high low

male 46 545 sex female 1 60 40Q

teacher effectiveness high low

freshman 50 50 year in sophomore 4 57 school junior 50 50

senior 54054 w46

teacher effectiveness high low

high 57 433 student relireil medium 6060 40 giosity w low w42 58 74

APPENDIX G continued

teacher effectiveness high low

high 1 wo69 1 w31

teacher 1 influence medium 50 50

low 41 1 5359 1

4 75

APPENDIXAPPENDIX H class attitude percentages

class attitude high medium low

freshman 455 400o 15 year sophomore 28 W34 38o38038 in school junior 2329 383qaq 33

senior 2329 38 33

class attitude high medium low high 50M 39 11 teacher influence medium 35 37 28

low 19 39 422 IS THERE A significant relationship BETWEEN TEACHER credibility AND TEACHER effectiveness

blake D madsen department of communications MA degree december 1982

ABSTRACT this thesis was designed to determine if a significant relationship exists between credibility and effectiveness in seminary teachers teacher credibility was determined by an adaptation of CroskeysmccroskeysMc semantic differential scales used for measuring teacher credibility teacher effectiveness was determined by a matching scripture test chi square tests produced significant relationships between teacher credibility and the following student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude the tests also produced significant relationships between teacher effectiveness and these variables sex student religiosity teacher influence and class attitude these relationships largely were what one would expect the chi square test also produced a significant relationship between teacher credibility and teacher effectiveness thus the major expectation of the thesis was supported by the data more credible seminary teachers are more effective

COMMITTEE APPROVAL gordon C whitingwafwwf committee chairman

naMn1 0dallasdaliasaillas burnett committee member

TJCL CLC L C lavar bateman deDeatdeatmentdearmentpai menttmentament chairman