Student Teacher Attitudes To The Teaching Profession In Relation To Teacher Effectiveness

A total of of 54 post "A" level student teachers at Gweru Teachers’ College sat an attitude tpst to check their committment to teaching as a profession. The attitude scores were related to the effectiveness of the teachers in classroom. The results show that students may join the teaching profession intially without interest in the professioribut are later socialised by the college and schools to even cherish me career and be effective teachers. The attitudes of student teachers are not a critical determinant of the performanceleffectiveness of the post "A" level student teachers. As early as 1958, Professor Fletcher's Working Party on Teacher Education in Zimbabwe warned; ..that however small the pool of applicants for training,there should always be a selective process applied since health,character temperament and sense of vocation are necessary in addition to minimum . academic standards.(Fletcher,1958p.26) The sense of vocation referred to by the Working Party can best be measured by the attitudes of the selected student teachers to the teaching profession. Fletcher (1958) suggested that two terms after students are admitted to teacher training, there should be a ‘weeding out' point so that only commited teachers are left to train. This weeding could be based on observed performance and general attitudes of the recruits to the teaching profession. However this would naturally be a wasteful procedure.