Attitudes in Correctional Education

Attitudes in Correctional Education:

In general in the field of education it has been known for some time that the attitudes of teachers towards their students greatly influence learning outcomes. Robert Rosenthal of Harvard University is the principal researcher in this area, and his findings regarding the power of teacher behavior and thinking toward students, regardless of their age, have stimulated questioning in educational circles. It is the purpose of this paper to summarize Rosenthal's findings, review the literature pertaining to teacher attitudes in correctional education, and pose some possible questions and direction for fruitful research in the area of effective teaching in penal institutions.

Rosenthal's central premise is that one person's expectation for another's behavior can become a self-fulfilling prophecy (1992, p. 174). He does not say that this is always the case but that there is a tendency in that direction. In his Oak School experiment, each of eighteen teachers of grades one through six was given the names of children who, in the year ahead, was expected to show a dramatic intellectual growth spurt (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1992, p. 175). These special children were actually randomly chosen, but 47 percent of them gained twenty or more total IQ points.

Rosenthal speculates that unintentional communications between student and teacher can be incredibly complex (1992, p. 180), creating a dynamic that encourages or blocks stu

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to be done (Hawke and Ritter, 1988, p. 24). Toupin's comments on the academic orientation include the approaches of freedom and cognition, which appeal to students who are intellectual types (1988, p. 113). The academic approach warrants grater independence in connection to the correctional setting, and this type of teaching has a greater long-term effect, with less recidivism (Toupin, 1988, p. 113). Research regarding vocational programs in Arkansas and Oklahoma show that graduates of vocational-technical programs in prisons in those states also have a low recidivism rate (Hassell, 1988, p. 28). Prisoners in the Oklahoma program reported that the instructors take a personal interest in them and "want them to make it" (Dollar, 1988, p. 29). Ideally, these students respond greatly to the attitudes of their vocational instructors and undergo an attitude change themselves which is more important than any specific job skill (Dollar, 1988, p. 29). Toupin found in his survey that the teachers of the vocational sector seem to be more product being. This type of teacher views himself as a representative of society who wants to perform as a model for the students (Toupin, 1988, p. 113). The vocational approach seems efficient becau

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