Teacher Professional Role Orientation and its Relationship to Teacher Attitudes and Reported Classroom Practices

Abstract

This paper reports a study carried out amongst Brisbane secondary school teachers in 1972. In this study it was found that there was no relationship between teachers' scores on a measure of professional role orientation and their attitudes about students and a number of classroom activities. These attitudes were selected on the basis of research which had shown them to be important for teacher effectiveness. It is suggested that the importance of professionalism to teaching should be re-examined. Further research is urgently needed to ascertain what improvements professionalization might bring to teaching.