Taking a Second Look at First Impressions That Kindergarten Teachers Have of Their Students

Abstract

This study attempted to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between first impression scores of Kindergarten students and scores after time. To achieve this purpose, a teacher survey was administered to fifteen Kindergarten teachers. During the first week of school, the teachers were asked to rate five or their students on 18 different characteristics on a scale of 1-5. These characteristics included attitude, social interaction, respect for adults, maturity, independence, behavior, curiosity, risk-taking, creativity, enjoyment of literature, concept of print, understanding of math concepts, memory, academic ability, oral language, physical fitness, fine-motor skills, and socio-economic status. After eight weeks of school, the survey was given again and the teachers rated the same students on the same characteristics. A t test for paired two sample means was used to analyze the scores of each teacher individually and of all of the teachers together. The results of the study found a borderline significance between the scores of all of the teachers combined and that three out of the fifteen individual teachers had a statistically significant score.