Department
Advanced Education Programs
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Abundant theoretical and empirical literature documents how teachers' expectations influence student performance. Labels and self-fulfilling prophecies often have a dramatic influence on academic achievement and self-esteem. This study tests this thesis by measuring the attitudes of teachers toward special education students, and determines whether those attitudes influence their assessment of student achievement on a writing task. Forty-nine teachers from one rural school district in southwest Kansas participated in this study. Subjects were all given an attitude survey and asked to assess a writing-sample by use of criteria established in the Diagnostic Achievement Battery (DAB-2), subtest 10, "Writing Composition." Although all teachers assessed the same writing-sample, half were given instruct ions that indicated a special education student wrote the writing-sample, while the other half indicated that a regular education student wrote the sample. Subjects in this study varied in their attitudes toward special education students and their assessment of the writing-sample. However, there was no statistically significant relationship between attitudes and assessment of a writing-sample. The findings of this study suggest that self-fulfilling prophecies and the processes of labeling may be more complex than the literature suggests.
Advisor
Art Hoernicke
Date of Award
Spring 2002
Document Type
Thesis - campus only access
Recommended Citation
Waskul, Michele E., "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in Special Education Students" (2002). Master's Theses. 2874.
DOI: 10.58809/THUK6381
Available at:
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/2874
Rights
© The Author(s)
Comments
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