3-093 - Preservice and In-service Teachers’ Attitudes and Responses toward Children’s Social Behaviors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

It has long been recognized that teachers’ attitudes and reactions toward children’s social behaviors both directly and indirectly influence children’s social, emotional, and academic development (Fang, 1996). Notwithstanding, less is understood about the attributes of preservice and in-service teachers that may shape their attitudes and reactions. Moreover, most of the extant research has focused on samples from Western societies. Given that culture plays a substantive role in shaping individuals’ attitudes and reactions toward children’s adaptive and maladaptive social behaviors (Chen & French, 2008), it is critical to consider the perceptions of teachers from non-Western societies.
The three papers in this symposium address the associations between teachers’ attitudes and reactions to different types of children’s social behaviors. The first paper examines the relation between preservice teachers’ shyness and their disciplinary strategies and attitudes to hypothetical vignettes depicting shy, exuberant, and typical child behaviors. The second paper uses a vignette approach to investigate whether kindergarten teachers’ tolerance and perceptions of the social and academic implications of shy and unsociable children differ between teachers from rural versus urban regions of China. Finally, the third paper examines the longitudinal associations between elementary school teachers’ ratings of children’s social behaviors and children’s theory-of-mind. The three papers are complimentary in their research question, use different methodological approaches, and consider both Western and non-Western samples in addressing teachers’ attitudes and reactions to children’s social behaviors and the factors that influence these perceptions.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Amanda Bullock, Carleton University

Discussant

• Bridget Hamre, UVA

Individual Presentations

• Does shyness matter? An exploratory study examining associations between preservice teachers’ shyness and their job performance - Irina Patwardhan, Research Scientist, Boys Town; Presenting Author: Kathleen Rudasill, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Qizhen Deng, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Guy Trainin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Robert Coplan, Carleton University; Suzanne Wessels, Save the Children; Julia Torquati, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Rural and Urban Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Perceptions of Children’s Shy and Unsociable Behaviors - Presenting Author: Amanda Bullock, Carleton University; Yan Li, Shanghai Normal University, China; Robert Coplan, Carleton University; Kristen A. Archbell, Carleton University

• A Longitudinal Study of Children’s ToM and their Teacher Ratings of Social Behaviour - Presenting Author: Sandra L Bosacki, Brock University