An Investigation of Junior High School Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes Toward Content Area Reading and School Subjects

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of junior high school teachers toward content area reading. A secondary purpose was to investigate eighth grade students’ attitudes toward English, math, reading, science and social studies. Two attitude scales were developed by the researcher for assessing teachers' attitudes. The Statements Survey, using a Likert scale, was a direct measure of teachers' attitudes toward theoretical statements about content area reading. The Situations Survey, using the semantic differential technique, assessed teachers' attitudes toward specific situations and plans which illustrated content area reading strategies. The Estes Attitude Scales, a commercial, Likert type scale, was used to assess students' attitudes toward school subjects. The junior high school teachers expressed positive attitudes toward content area reading philosophies and strategies on both of the scales. Teachers expressed strongly positive attitudes toward developing awareness of skills needed in their subjects, teaching the skills students need in order to get meaning from reading materials, and toward evaluating both content and skills. Teachers felt less positive about grouping students for instruction and individualizing instruction. Teachers indicated a lack of confidence in their abilities to diagnose students' skills needs. The mean scores for students' attitudes toward school subjects fell within the positive range. However, in all subjects, except English, the attitudes expressed by these students were significantly below the stated norms. Most positive attitudes were expressed toward math, while least positive attitudes were directed toward social studies.