The personality of the teacher is a significant variable in the classroom (Getzels & Jackson, 1963). Teacher attitude has been a subject of study and interest for many years in education. However, although there are some reviews which provide an overview of teacher attitude research in other fields of education (Powell & Beard, 1986; Donaldson, 1980; Towner, 1984), there is no review or analysis focusing on teacher attitude research in art education. This paper is an attempt to, not only examine methods used, but also discuss some important methodological concepts and problems by analyzing the existing teacher attitude studies in art education from 1965 to 1997 in North American.
This paper explores teacher attitude measurement in art education in four parts. The first two parts will discuss the research methods used in teacher attitude studies and clarify some important methodological concepts; the latter two parts explore methodology strategy and problems regarding attitude measurement. Part one points out that existing attitude studies in art education is scarce, and then introduce the contents of these studies and the researchers. Part two explores the nature of the measurement methods used in these attitude studies, and clarify some important methodological concepts regarding qaulitative-quantitative and survey issues. In part three, triangulation, an important strategy to eliminate measurement bias and errors, is deliberated by analyzing the studies. Part four indicates a fundamental and serious flaw that exists in most teacher attitude studies in art education: the lack of a clear identification of the attitudinal concept. Finally, based on the analysis of the four parts, some important implications are presented.
Keywords
Art Education, Art Museum Education, Teacher Attitude, Attitude Measurement, Attitude Study