A Study of the Maintenance of Some Pedagogical Attitudes Held by Social Studies Teachers after Their First Year of Teaching in a School

The maintenance of specific pedagogical attitudes held by a group of student teachers during the period from fourth year preservice teaching training, through to the end of their first year of teaching was investigated. Attitudes to characteristics pertaining to inquiry teaching in social studies at the high school level in Western Australia were examined by a semantic differential. After extensive pilot testing of concepts and bipolar scales, the final form of the semantic differential was administered to a final year (N = 63) group of social studies preservice teachers. The instrument was again administered to the group (N = 40), after they had completed their first year of teaching. Significant differences on seven concepts revealed a decline in attitude scores on some major characteristics of inquiry teaching, especially on concepts representing classroom management techniques in inquiry teaching.