Comparative Effectiveness of Human Relations Training for Elementary Student Teachers

Abstract

A 20-hour training program in human relations skills was provided for two groups of student teachers using the model initially developed by Carkhuff (3). One group received training concurrent with the student teaching experience while the other received human relations training immediately prior to student teaching experience. A control group of student teachers received no training. Results indicated that the training was highly successful, however, the group trained before the student teaching experience decreased in human relationship skills following the experience. The concurrently trained group, while exhibiting no deterioration, did not achieve as high an initial level of functioning as the former group. The attitudes of both experimental groups toward the training experience were extremely favorable. Implications of the findings for the timing of human relations training groups in the teacher education process were considered.