The Influence of Children’s Temperament Characteristics on Teachers’ Decision Strategies

Abstract

Thirteen primary level teachers provided information on 321 students concerning the children’s temperament characteristics, school performance estimates, and classroom management decisions. Factor analysis of the temperament measures yielded three independent factors: Task Orientation, Adaptability, and Reactivity. These factors replicate earlier findings with a similar instrument and meld with other research on teachers’ behavioral ratings. The most important finding to emerge concerned the strong and consistent relationship between the students’ temperament characteristics and teachers’ classroom decisions. Multiple regression analyses indicated that most of the teachers used Task Orientation information across classroom management decision-making situations.