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Stress and locus of control among Singaporean trainee special education teachers
Author
Rai, Bimal
Supervisor
Thomas, Elwyn
Abstract
Thirty-one trainee special education teachers completed the Teacher Stress Inventory (Fimian, 1988) and the Teacher Locus of Control Scale (Taylor, Sadowski & Preacher, 1981) in a study that was primarily aimed to investigate the relationship between these trainee teachers' self-perception of work stress and their locus of control. It was hypothesised that an internal locus of control score would be negatively correlated with the total stress score, and that trainee special education teachers who have low stress will have an internal locus of control orientation. The study also investigated the effect of selected variables (eg teachers' gender, teachers' age, teachers' qualifications and the type of pupils that the trainee special education teachers were teaching) on teacher stress. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was calculated to determine whether there was any relationship between teacher stress and locus of control among the trainee special education teachers. Additional analyses were also conducted using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to investigate the effect of the selected variables on teacher stress. Principal findings indicated that trainee special education teachers who have low stress, have an internal locus of control orientation. It was also revealed that the stress the trainee teachers encountered, was not mediated by the variables such as teachers' gender, age, qualifications and the type of pupils that they were teaching. The findings were discussed in terms of their limitations as well as their implications. Areas for future research are also outlined.
Date Issued
2001
Call Number
LB2840.2 Rai
Date Submitted
2001