AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

The question as to which of two conditions – being fair, or being perceived to be fair on the basis of perceived teacher empathy for students – was studied in this investigation. Therefore, answers were sought to the following questions: (a) Were students' perceptions of teacher empathy affected by the number and kinds of exposures to teacher behaviors? (b) Were students' perceptions of teacher fairness related to students' perceptions of teacher empathy?;In the event that one or both of the preceding questions were supported affirmatively, three additional questions were thought to be pertinent: (c) Were students' perceptions of teacher empathy and/or teacher fairness related to the age of the student? (d) Were students' perceptions of teacher empathy and/or teacher fairness related to the sex of the student? and (e) Were students able to distinguish between fair teacher behavior and unfair teacher behavior?;Students in this investigation were shown varied segments of a videotape containing vignettes of a teacher which either: (a) introduced the teacher to the students, or (b) showed the teacher engaged in positive interactions with a small group of students, or (c) showed the teacher resolving a conflict fairly, or (d) showed the teacher resolving a conflict arbitrarily and unfairly. The same teacher appeared in all four segments;Two questionnaires were used for data collection. One questionnaire, "The Teacher," was a modified subset of items from the Student Evaluation of Teacher Instrument developed by Haak, Kleiber and Peck (1972) and was used to measure perceived teacher empathy for students. The other questionnaire, "The Teacher (b)," was constructed specifically for this investigation to measure perceived teacher fairness. Reliability for "The Teacher" was .659 and was .854 for "The Teacher (b).";Five hundred and thirty-five first, third and fifth graders participated in the study. Findings were: (a) Students' perceptions of teacher empathy were based not upon having observed the teacher interact verbally but on having observed the teacher's actions; (b) Students' perceptions of teacher fairness were based on teacher verbal behavior plus teacher actions; (c) Females tended to have a greater tendency to perceive the teacher as having empathy for students, but did not translate this tendency into perceiving that the teacher was more fair than did males; (d) The younger the student the greater the tendency to perceive the teacher as having empathy for students; however, the age finding was only partially true in the perception of teacher fairness; only the first grade was significantly different from the third and fifth grades; and (e) Students could distinguish between fair and unfair teacher behaviors;Haak, R. A., Kleiber, D. A., & Peck, R. F. Student evaluation of teacher instrument II manual. Austin Texas: The Dissemination Department, The Research and Development Center for Teacher Education, The University of Texas, 1972.