A Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Change in Attitude Measured by Barth/Shermis Social Studies Preference Scale

Abstract

Teachers' attitudes about purpose, method and content determine the social studies tradition which they tend to follow. We know that different traditions exist for those traditions can be traced historically throughout the development of the field. We have not been, until the last eight years, able to identify the effect of instruction in a methods course and student teaching on pre-service social studies teachers' attitudes toward purpose, method, and content. During four years, forty–eight subjects were tested using the Barth/Shermis Social Studies Preference Scale, a forty–five item instrument. The conclusions suggest that the subjects were most stable in their attitudes toward Reflective Inquiry and least stable in their attitudes toward Social Science. It was also found that the subjects shifted attitudes more frequently in a social studies methods course than in student teaching. This study on the measurement of attitudes demonstrates that the Preference Scale will lead to a more effective means of evaluating social studies methods courses and student teaching experiences.