Attitudes of selected vocational teachers toward vocational education and college preparation

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: (1) to assess the attitude of the vocational teachers of the Area Vocational-Technical Centers in the State of Virginia towards vocational education and college preparation: and (2) to determine to what extent combinations of personal characteristics were predictive of the vocational education and college preparation preference of the vocational teachers.

Eight research questions were derived for the purpose of Clarifying the direction of the study. The variables were: (1) the area of subject matter taught; (2) the age; (3) the number of years of work experience outside of teaching; (4) the number of years of teaching experience; and (5) sex (male-female).

Data were collected on data processing sheets through a mail survey. The subjects were teachers of 17 Area Vocational-Technical Centers. The 17 centers were randomly selected from a total of 27. A total of 201 or 72.92 percent of the 277 vocational teachers responded to the survey. The survey instruments were fed into a computer and the scores from the respondents were recorded on data processing cards, The SAS (Statistical Analysis System) was utilized in programming the cards. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data pertinent to the research questions.

On the basis of the information presented in this study, the following conclusions resulted relative to the vocational teacher's attitude toward vocational education and college preparation:

1. Attitude is not influenced by the combination of the area of subject matter taught and the age of the teachers.

2. Attitude is not influenced by the combination of the area of subject matter taught and the number of years of work experience of the teachers.

3. Attitude is influenced by the combination of the area of subject matter taught and the number of years of teaching experience of the teachers.

4. Attitude is not influenced by the combination of the age and the number of years of work experience of the teachers.

5. Attitude is not influenced by the combination of the age and the number of years of teaching experience of the teachers.

6. Attitude is not influenced by the combinations of the number of years of work experience outside of teaching and the number of years of teaching experience of the teachers.

7. Attitude is not influenced by the sex (male-female) of the teachers.

When analyzed, all data was tested at the alpha level of 0.05.

The lack of difference in the combinations of the personal characteristics variables tend to indicate that the personal characteristics of the teachers might not serve as a valid indicator of teacher vocational education and college preparation preference.

The overall criterion mean scores of 195.787 was a deviation of 14,213 from the arithmetic mean of 210. This implied that the vocational education/college preparation preference of the vocational teachers, as a group, had a tendency to lean toward college preparation as opposed to vocational education.

The results of the Study suggested that ape, when viewed in terms of the criterion measures, and the area of subject matter taught and the number of years of teaching experience, in combination, were valid indicators in predicting the preference of vocational teachers of the Area Vocational-Technical Centers in Virginia. However, preference of these vocational teachers did not differ significantly in terms of the remaining variables of this study. The data appeared to suggest that vocational teachers of these centers were biased against vocational education in favor of college preparation.