The Attitudes of Teachers of the Mentally Retarded Toward Teacher Evaluation of Instructional Materials

Abstract

An 11-item Instructional Material Evaluation Scale was sent to 100 teachers of the mentally retarded in the region served by the KU-SEIMC in order to ascertain teacher attitudes concerning: (a) their ability to evaluate instructional materials; (b) their willingness to cooper-ate in the evaluation process; and (c) the ability of selected others to evaluate instructional materials. Returns from 92 teachers indicate they have very positive attitudes concerning their own ability to evaluate instructional materials and somewhat negative attitudes toward the ability of non-teaching personnel to evaluate instructional materials. The respondents were very ambivalent concerning their involvement in a systematic evaluation process. It was concluded that teachers of the mentally retarded will probably participate in the systematic evaluation of instrus 'ional materials to the degree they perceive the evaluations of value to them and their colleagues.