Abstract
The present study had 2 purposes. The first was to develop a scale to measure middle-school teachers' concerns about their relations with their students. Second, the relation between the 3 scales developed (a teachers' concerns scale, a scale of teachers' coping with their concerns, and a scale measuring supports for the teachers) and changes in the teachers' perception of their students after they had had some problems with them, was examined. Included in the changes in the teachers' perception of their students was the opportunity that the teachers had to become better teachers because they understood their students better as a result of coping with the problems they had had with them. The data came from a questionnaire completed by 290 middle-school teachers. Factor analysis of the data from the teachers' concerns scale revealed 4 main factors: “feelings of opposition to the students,” “feelings of difficulty when teaching the students,”“lack of acceptance of the teachers by their students,” and “dissatisfaction with their relations with their students.” Furthermore, multiple regression analysis revealed that all 4 of the factors from the teachers' concerns scale correlated significantly with changes in perception of the students that were reported by the teachers after they had had to deal with problems with the students. It was suggested that the teachers' troubled feelings were not only negative but also had a positive side for the teachers. Cognitive change as reported on the teachers' concerns scale was correlated significantly with all reports of changes in perception of the students.
