Change in Student Teacher Dogmatism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if change in student teacher dogmatism during the student teaching experience was a function of the degree of dogmatism of the supervising teacher. The measure of dogmatism for all subjects was Rokeach’s Dogmatism Scale, Form E. The population in the study consisted of eighty student teachers and eighty supervising teachers. A significant change in dogmatism scores of student teachers did occur. Of the eighty student teacher subjects, fifty-three moved in the direction of the supervising teacher on the variable of dogmatism from pretest to posttest. Twenty-seven student teachers moved in the opposite direction. This difference was significant at the .01 level. The shift in mean dogmatism score for those student teachers who scored lower than the supervising teacher was significant at the .01 level. For the subjects who scored higher the mean shift was significant at the .05 level.