Liora Pedhazur Schmelkin

Student Perspectives on Teaching and its Evaluation

The research on student ratings of instruction, while voluminous, has had minimal focus on the perceptions of the students who do the ratings. The current study explored student perspectives on course and teacher ratings as well as some issues related to teaching effectiveness and faculty roles. It was found that students are generally willing to do evaluations and to provide feedback, and have no particular fear of repercussions. However, they have little confidence that faculty or administrators pay attention to the results, and do not even consult the ratings themselves. The students view teaching and advising as the most important roles that should be played by faculty, yet project that faculty, while also viewing teaching as the most important, would rank research above the more student-interactive advising. Canonical correlations among various scales reveal a strong emphasis on such issues of the importance of faculty respect for student views.

Faculty Perspectives on Course and Teacher Evaluations

Student ratings of instruction have been the subject of numerous studies with much of the research focusing on the validity and reliability of the ratings themselves. Comparatively little empirical investigation has been devoted to the perceptions of the individuals who are the subjects of the ratings, that is, the faculty. The current study explored faculty perspectives on the usefulness of student ratings for formative and summative purposes, and the actual use of student ratings for summative purposes. Contrary to what might have been deduced from the anecdotal literature, the results of this study do not portray a great deal of resistance to student ratings in general or to their use for formative and summative evaluation. It was also found that student ratings are actually being used for the latter purpose. The usefulness of the student feedback was viewed differentially by the faculty, with feedback on their interaction with students seen as most useful, followed by feedback on their grading practices, global ratings of instructor and course, and finally structural issues of the course.

Perceptions of Disabilities: a Multidimensional Scaling Approach:

Using INDSCAL (Individual Differences Scaling), the author investigated perceptions of disabilities of special education teachers, regular teachers, and nonteachers under conditions of undefined and defined disabilities. The perceptual spaces obtained were all multidimensional in nature, with the differences among them reflecting various degrees of complexity as well as specific types of contrasts used. The differences among the separate perceptual spaces notwithstanding, they share a common core that reflects a tripartite classification of disabilities, namely cognitive impairments, physical impairments, and behavioral-emotional disorders, as well as a generalized contrast between so-called normal and disabilities. Substantive implications of the findings are discussed in relation to current attempts to mainstream the handicapped.Using INDSCAL (Individual Differences Scaling), the author investigated perceptions of disabilities of special education teachers, regular teachers, and nonteachers under conditions of undefined and defined disabilities. The perceptual spaces obtained were all multidimensional in nature, with the differences among them reflecting various degrees of complexity as well as specific types of contrasts used. The differences among the separate perceptual spaces notwithstanding, they share a common core that reflects a tripartite classification of disabilities, namely cognitive impairments, physical impairments, and behavioral-emotional disorders, as well as a generalized contrast between so-called normal and disabilities. Substantive implications of the findings are discussed in relation to current attempts to mainstream the handicapped.

A Multidimensional Scaling Study Of Administrators' And Teachers' Perceptions Of Disabilities

There is a growing recognition that the perceptions educators hold about youngsters with disabilities may affect the way they classify and treat these children in their classes. The present investigation focused on the perceptions of disabilities of four groups of educators: elementary school principals, special education administrators, regular elementary teachers, and special education teachers. The study examined differences in the perceptual spaces of the four groups. Multidimensional scaling was utilized to assess the perceptions of disabilities. Results indicated that perceptions of disabilities were multidimensional and that the perceptual structure differed for the four groups. Despite the differences among the perceptual spaces, the groups shared some commonalities relating to physical, behavorial-emotional, perceptual, and sensory disabilities.

The dimensional structure of medical students' perceptions of diseases.

First- and second-year medical students rated 35 diseases (e.g., cancer, heart attack, herpes, schizophrenia, alcoholism) on nine different rating scales (e.g., prognosis, ease of management). In order to uncover the underlying dimensional structure, mean ratings were subjected to multidimensional scaling analyses in which both diseases and rating scales were placed in the same configuration. The results indicated that a two-dimensional solution, accounting for 97% of the variance, was most appropriate. The first dimension distinguishes between diseases that appear to be more physiological in nature and those that have some psychological involvement as well. The second dimension seems most related to fear, seriousness, prognosis, patient desirability, and ease of management.

Educators' Attitudes toward the Employability of Persons with Severe Handicaps.

The perception of an individual’s value in our society is frequently determined by earning power, the job held, and participation in the work force. A surprising number of people assume that people with handicaps are unable to work, except possibly in highly sheltered work environments. Such negative attitudes toward the employability of adults with handicaps may affect their success in securing and maintaining employment. This state of affairs is of even greater concern when the focus is on youths with severe developmental disabilities, though it has been shown that, under the proper circumstances, gainful employment is possible (Bellamy, Sheehan, Horner, & Boles, 1980; Moon, Goodall, Barcus, & Brooke, 1985; Schloss, McEwen, Lang, & Schwab, 1986). People with severe handicaps may differ greatly in their cognitive, behavioral, communicative, and physical characteristics, and are generally grouped together based on their degree of dependence. In this article, the term &dquo;people with severe handicaps&dquo; refers to the lowest 1% of the population in intellectual function, which includes individuals given such labels as psychotic, autistic, moderately and severely retarded, and multiply handicapped. The focus on transition from school to work for youngsters with disabilities is

Hierarchy of preferences toward disabled groups: a reanalysis.

A reanalysis of Tringos (1970) hierarchy of preference toward disabled groups was conducted through multidimensional scaling. The structure underlying social-distance preferences is multidimensional in nature rather than unidimensional as presented by Tringo. The retained 3-dimensional solution was interpreted as focusing on the visibility of the disabilities, the organic versus functional nature of the disabilities, and an element of ostracism.

Professional Attitudes: Group Differences among Vocational and Special Educators towards the Employability of Persons with Severe Disabilities.

JAMES M. BROWN is Director, Minnesota Research & Development Center and Associate Professor, Department of Vocational & Technical Education, University of Minnesota; DIANNE E. BERKELL is Professor in the Department of Special Education and Reading, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus; LIORA PEDHAZUR SCHMELKIN is Chair and Professor in Department of Counseling, Research, Special Education, and Rehabilitation, Hofstra University. A VARIETY OF FEDERAL and state legislative initiatives during the past 15 years have identified the transition of youth with disabilities from school to employ-

Medical Student Attitudes and Anticipated Choice of Psychiatric Specialty

Attitudes toward psychiatric disease and the biopsychosocial model were studied to determine their relation to career choice in psychiatry. A cross-sectional sample of 319 undergraduate medical students and 24 Medical Behavioral Science Faculty participated in the study. Differences related to gender, undergraduate major, class, and anticipated medical specialty were found to be related to scores on nine attitudinal factors. Students planning to specialize in primary care and psychiatry shared similar and relatively accepting attitudes toward a biopsychosocial mode of illness, but diverged with respect to attitudes toward psychiatric illness. The implications of this finding with regard to psychiatric education and recruitment are discussed. The data also suggests that first year Medical Behavioral Science curriculum, which focuses on direct student exposure to psychiatrists and other interdisciplinary faculty working with medical patients, can positively influence attitudes.

Low- and High-IQ Learning Disabled Children in the Mainstream.

Nine low-IQ (<80) and 12 high-IQ (100+) children who had been classified by the schools as learning disabled (LD) and who attended resource room programs were observed during their participation in regular classes. Data were collected on teachers perceptions of the LD children, teachers behavior toward the children, and on the childrens academic achievement. Results indicated that teachers did not perceive the two groups of LD children differently but that the teachers behaved differently toward the two groups. Finally, the high-IQ children gained significantly more than the low-IQ children in reading achievement.