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Sarason's context of productive learning: Towards the development of a measure to assess teacher goals
Author(s) -
ForbesJones Emma L.,
Cowen Emory L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.1024
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , psychology , sample (material) , mathematics education , measure (data warehouse) , factor (programming language) , pedagogy , developmental psychology , computer science , paleontology , chemistry , chromatography , database , biology , programming language
The authors developed a 40‐item teacher‐completed measure designed to assess educational goals, including Sarason's concept of a context of productive learning (COPL). Elementary‐level teachers from schools across a range of sociodemographic contexts rated the importance of each of several goals. Factor analysis identified four factors: Traditional Learning, Context of Productive Learning (COPL), Teacher Control, and Meeting Requirements. Teachers who reported high levels of enjoyment of teaching and those teaching in the lower grades had higher scores on the COPL factor than their opposites. Also, teachers who reported that their teaching objectives had been shaped more by personal values and experiences than by training and supervision had higher COPL factor scores. Needed future steps include refinement of its item composition, replication with a larger sample, and exploration of its relationship to (a) actual teacher behaviors in the classroom and (b) pertinent child educational and behavioral outcomes. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.