Value Patterns of Future Teachers in Three Curricula

Abstract

One objective of counseling is to assist clients in making a satisfactory career choice. Although interest inventories have long been studied or employed by counselors, particularly in the educational and vocational aspects of their work, value profiles of individuals have not been so extensively treated. Research such as that conducted by Holland and Nichols (4) has indicated that whether or not a student remains in an academic field depends to a large extent upon whether he has attributes similar to those of the typical student in that area. If counselors had value pattern norms for students within a given curriculum, they could add the value dimension to the total personality portrait of a client and perhaps better aid him in his decision-making process.One of the purposes of the present study was to investigate whether there were differences in value patterns of future teachers enrolled in elementary, secondary, and special education. Research on this question is extremely scarce. Except for a study by Philippus and Fliegler (6), there is, to our knowledge, no other investigation that relates to values of future teachers within these three specific areas of education. Even Bereiter and Freedman's excellent review has little to report on values of future teachers in educational curricula (2).One of the criticisms leveled against teacher education programs is that the applied has often been stressed to the exclusion of the theoretical. Thought is generally described as proceeding from the concrete to the abstract. If there is any course in the professional education sequence that purports to deal with abstract topics and expressly seeks to assist future teachers in perceiving and developing their values, it should be philosophy of education. If this course were being generally effective, it might be antici-1. The authors wish to express their appreciation to

Values of college seniors enrolled in teacher preparation four to five years later

“…(.05) and significantly lower on the religious (.02) and aesthetic (.05) scales than did females enrolled in secondary education (Kirchner & Hogan, 1968).…”

“…Wood County (Ohio) Mental Health Clinic Increased interest in values has been made evident by the number of recent publications and dissertations in the area. Anderson (1966), Evans (1969), Hall (1969), Kirchner and Hogan (1968), Nichols (1969), Payne (1969), Sprinthall and Beaton (1966), and Whitmore (1968) all have researched values of teachers and future teachers. Except for the work of Arsenian (1970), Bender (1958), and Kelly (1955), studies that measured values of the same individuals over a period of years in an adult population were not to be found in the literature.…”

Les valeurs d’éducation d’un groupe d’étudiants-maîtres au début, au milieu et à la fin d’un programme de formation

“…Trois recherches (Kirchner et Hogan, 1968 ;Evans, 1967 ;Kakkar, 1970) faites à l'aide du Study of Values aboutissent à la conclusion que très peu sinon aucun changement de valeurs accompagne ou suit soit un cours de philosophie de l'éducation, soit un an de formation des maîtres. Il est cependant à noter que les valeurs mesurées par l'instrument utilisé dans ces recherches sont de nature très générale et probablement insensibles au changement à si courte échéance.…”