The Effect of Experience on Teacher Effectiveness: A Test of the Contingency Model

Summary

A revised form of Fiedler's contingency model was tested in which the level of organizational complexity was used as the most important determinant of situation favorability to modify the model. In the present study organizational complexity was assumed to be high. Starting (N = 20) and experienced (N = 28) college teachers who had either high or low Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scores were compared with use of student ratings as the dependent variable. Results indicated that low LPC starting teachers were more effective than high (p < .01), and no significant difference existed between high and low LPC experienced teachers. These findings offer partial support for the revised model.