Student teachers' anxieties: four measured factors and their relationships to pupil disruption in class

Abstract

This paper describes the construction of ‘The Student Teacher Anxiety Scale’, which measures four orthogonal factors in teaching practice anxiety, and its use in a study of relationships between these factors and the levels of pupil disruption in student teachers' classrooms. Student teachers' ‘evaluation’ anxiety showed the highest positive correlation with pupil disruption, followed by ‘class control’ anxiety. ‘Teaching practice requirements’ anxiety showed a statistically significant correlation but a non‐significant partial correlation with pupil disruption. Anxiety arising from ‘pupil and professional concerns’ showed no statistically significant correlation with pupil disruption levels in the student teachers' classrooms.