The Effect of Teachers' Beliefs on the Achievement in Reading of First- Grade Boys

This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 69-4951 PALARDY, James Michael, 1939- THE EFFECT OF TEACHERS' BELIEFS ON THE ACHIEVEMENT IN READING OF FIRST- GRADE BOYS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1968 Education, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE EFFECT OF TEACHERS' BELIEFS ON THF ACHIEVEMENT IN READING OF FIRST-GRADE BOYS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Michael Palardy, B.S.t M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by College of Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his sincerest thanks to Dr. Loren Tomlinson who not only directed the writing of this study, but who also served as an adviser par excelXence throughout the entire course of the writer's post-graduate work. To Dr. Alexander Frazier, who coun seled the writer so well in countless instances, sincerest thanks is also extended. And to Dr. Anthony Riccio, the other member of his reading committee, the writer is cer tainly indebted. To his wife, Mary Ellen, to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur F. Palardy, and to his mother- and father-in- law, Mr. and Mrs. William P. Murphy, no words of thanks can effectively communicate the writer's gratitude. In deed, without them, the present undertaking would not have been possible. I VITA November 14, 1939 born - Coshocton, Ohio 1961 ...... B.S., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1961-1963 . Secondary and Elementary Teacher, Crestline Public Schools, Crestline, Ohio 1963-1965 . Elementary Principal, Southeast Elementary School, Crestline, Ohio 1964 ........... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1965—1967 . Teaching Associate, College of Educa tion, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1967-1968 . Instructor, Department of Education, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Elementary Education Studies in Elementary Education. Professor Loren Tomlinson Studies in Curriculum and Supervision* Professor Alexander Frazier Studies in Sociology. Professor Alfred Clarke iii TABLF OF CONTENTS Paqe ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....... ......... ......... n VITA ...................................... - . ill LIST OF T A B L E S ............................... .. vi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ............... I Background.............. 1 Justification of the Problem - 5 Orientation to the Problem ............ 9 Statement of the problem 9 Assumptions of the study ............ Q Hypothesis to be tested ........ 10 Procedure so f he Study 10 Scope ana Lirn i tat ions ........... i ? Dei init.ioru; . ...................... - J 4 Orqanizat Tn oi the Report ...... t lfc II. REVIEW OF RF I.a TED LiTERATUR!........ .. 1 7 Teacher s A i ; ec t St udent s 1 _Se 1 f -Concept . 18 Set. t-Concept aiii Ach ievement ....... 2 9 Co i lege studies ................ i 1 Junior arid sen i o i: blob schoo 1 studies . I 3 Elementary schoo. studies ....... 58 Summary ................. 49 ITT. METHOPOL9GV OF THE -ST! J IVY................ , 18 Select run of Samp if- ................. 48 The questionnaire ........... 48 The interview ........ ......... 5 5 The student sample ........... 58 i v TABLE OF CONTENTS— Continued Chapter Page Testing Procedures and Instruments .... 59 Student .s’ socioeconomic background . 60 Student:. chrono log ica 1 age ...... 61 Students’ reading readiness ............ 62 Students' intelligence quotients .... 64 Teacher competence ............... 65 S u m m a r y .................................. 66 IV. PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA . 69 Major Hypothesis ...... 69 Minor Hypotheses......................... 75 Word reading s c o r e s ................. 76 Paragraph meaning scores ........ 79 Vocabulary scores . ^ ‘ . 8 3 Word-study-skI11s scores ............. 86 Summary ................. ........ 90 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .................... 9 3 The Purpose and Procedures of t.be Study . 9 3 Summary of Findings ..................... 95 Conclusions 100 Recommendations ......................... 102 APPENDIX............................................. 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................... .. .................109 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Teachers' Reported Beliefs Concerning the Percentage of Success for Boys in Learn ing to Read when the Percentage of Success for Girls was Assumed to be 8 0 % ........... 50 2. Criteria for the Exclusion of Group A and Group B Teachers ................... 53 3. Group A and Group B Teachers Matched Specifically According to Experience . 54 4. Student Sample Size by Teacher Group .... 59 5. Mean Chronological Ages by Months for the Four Student Sample Groups ............... 62 6. Mean Reading Readiness Scores for the Four Student Sample Groups .... 64 7. Mean IQs for the Four Student Sample Groups ....................... ...... 65 8. Mean Reading Achievement Scores for the Two Girl G r o u p s ............................ 66 9. Analysis of Variance of the Reading Achieve ment Scores of Students Classified by Sex and by the Beliefs of their Teachers, with Students' IQ as a C o v a r i a b l e ............. 71 10. Mean Reading Achievement Scores for the Four Student Sample Groups ............... 74 11. Analysis of Variance of the Word Reading Scores of Students Classified by Sex and by the Beliefs of their Teachers, with Students' IQ as a C o v a r i a b l e ............. 78 vi LIST OF TABLES— Continued Table Page 12. Analysis of Variance of the Paragraph Meaning Scores of Students Classified by Sex and by the Beliefs of their Teachers, with Students' IQ as a Covariable...... 80 13. Mean Paragraph Meaning Scores for the Four Student Sample Groups ........ 82 14. Analysis of Variance of the Vocabulary Scores of Students Classified by Sex and by the Beliefs of their Teachers, with Students' IQ as a C o v a r i a b l e .......... 84 15. Mean Vocabulary Scores for Students in the Two Teacher Groups ............. 85 16. Analysis of Variance of the Word-Study- Skills Scores of Students Classified by Sex and by the Beliefs of their Teachers, with Students' IQ as a Covariable..... 88 17. Mean Word-Study-Skills Scores for Students in the Two Teacher G r o u p s ................. 89 18. Mean Word-Study-Skills Scores for the Four Student Sample Groups ...... ......... 90 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background More than three decades ago, W. I. Thomas, the Dean of American sociologists, theorized, "If men define . situations as real, they are real in their consequences."^ Underlying this theory, which has come to be known as the "Thomas Theorem," there is, essentially, a two-fold ration ale . First, it is claimed that the act of making a definition about a situation is also an act of making a prophecy about it; and secondly, the act of making a proph ecy about a situation is also an act of creating the condi- tions whereby the prophecy itself is realized. 2 The term, then, "self-fulfilling prophecy," has been used to refer to the circular effect of the Thomas Theorem. Some recent research in education, psychology, and ^W. I. Thomas, "The Relation of Research to the Social Process," in Essays on Research in the Social Sci ences (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1931), "pi TS"9. 2 James W. Vander Zanden, American Minority Rela tions (New York: The Ronald Press Company^ 1963), p. 1^3. sociology has brought forth new evidence that the self- fulfilling prophecy may be operating to a considerable extent in schools and classroons thrqughout the country, Most recently, Rosenthal and Jacobson found, when eighteen teachers had been told that certain of their elementary students would show dramatic intellectual growth in the academic year ahead, that those students did make signifi cantly greater gains in IQ than the other students in the same classrooms who had not been designated as Mintellec tual spurters." There was, in reality, no difference between the two groups of students relative to their potential for "intellectual spurting." The only difference was in the minds of their teachers.^ One possible explanation for the operation of the self-fulfilling prophecy, as it is related to the academic achievement of certain students within a classroom setting, might be thought of in the following way. If a teacher, for any one of a number of reasons, believes that some students have a good chance of succeeding academically, he will directly or indirectly communicate this belief to them both through his actions toward them and his interactions with them. Eventually, the students will begin to perceive themselves in the same way the teacher perceives them and 3 Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968), 240 pp. 3 to value themselves in the same way the teacher values them. And finally, because the students' self-concepts or self—perceptions are positive regarding their ability to succeed academically, they will be successful. There is no lack of theory and research to support the plausibility of the above rationale. It is generally accepted, i;or example, that children's self-concepts, their views of themselves, are primarily formed through their interaction with significant other people in their environ ment and that, for many children, teachers do serve as 4 "significant others." More specifically, Perkins has demonstrated that teachers do influence the personality 5 development of their pupils, and Ryans has shown that children, especially those in elementary school, tend to pattern

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