Twenty-Six Years of Changes in Education Students’ Attitudes

Abstract

The main purpose of this quantitative study was to compare graduate education students from 1988 with graduate and undergraduate education students from 2014 in regard to their attitudes and expectations about teaching, schools, and students. The sample of participants for this study was chosen from a large public research university in North Texas and it was comprised of 50 graduate education students from 1988, 119 undergraduate and 147 graduate education students from 2014.The 2014 graduate education students were found to be significantly more negative and to have significantly lower expectations than either the graduate education students of 1988 or the undergraduates of 2014. The 1988 graduate education students were significantly more positive toward their careers than the 2014 undergraduate students. Predictive variables were identified and the possible consequences of increased educators’ negativity toward students and schools are discussed.