Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine novice
t~ache~s' perceptions of th~ extent to which the Brock
University teacher education program focused on strategies
for promoting responsibility in students.
Individual interviews were conducted with ten randomly
selected teachers who were graduates of this teacher
education program between the years of 1989 and 1992, and a
follow-up group discussion activity, with the same teachers,
was also held.
Findings revealed that the topic of personal
responsibility was discussed within various components of
the program, including counselling group sessions, but that
these discussions were often brief, indirect and
inconsistent.
Some of the strategies which the teachers used in their
own classrooms to promote responsibility in students were
ones which they had acquired from those counselling group
°sessions or from associate teachers. Various strategies
included: setting ~lear expectations of students with
positive and negative consequences for behaviour (e.g.,
material rewards and detentions, respectively),
cemmunic?ting'with other teachers an~ parents, and
-.
suspending students from school. A teacher's choice of any
particular strategy seemed to be affected by his or her personality, teaching sUbject and region of employment, as
well as certain aspects of the teacher education program.
It was concluded that many of the teachers appeared to
be controlling rude and vio~ent- behaviour, as opposed to
promoting responsible behaviour. Recommendations were made
for the pre-service program, as well as induction and inservice
programs, to increase teacher preparedness for
promoting responsible student behaviour. One of these
recommendations addressed the need to help teachers learn
how to effectively communicate with their students.
