The Perplexed and the Passionate: Views of Truth and Instructional Practice

• In Event: 45.093 - MTCC Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 45.093-3 - To Be Good, Ethical, and True: Conceptualizing Teaching

Abstract

This study investigated teacher profiles with regards to their conception of truth. The explanatory sequential design begin with the first phase administering a survey to a random sample from across one state in the American southeast. Results were aggregated and each teacher was profiled with regards to four diverse views of truth: correspondence, relativist, pragmatist, and critical. The second phase of the study analyzed open-ended responses to a set of questions about instructional practices of teachers for comparison of common practices based on truth profile. The results of this investigation found a significant proportion of teachers hold contradictory views of truth while those who are firmly within one profile have noticeable distinctions among priorities, perspectives, and practices.

Author

• Kevin Scott Krahenbuhl, Middle Tennessee State University