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Pajares (1992) concluded that beliefs about teaching are well formed by the time a student begins college. These behavior-impacting beliefs were proposed to be self-perpetuating and persevering, even in the face of contradictions caused by reason, time, schooling, or experience. Because students have experienced thousands of hours of their teachers' classroom behavior before entering preservice teacher training programs (Tabachnick & Zeichner, 1984), preservice teachers enter teacher preparation programs with well established filters for what constitutes effective teaching based on an "apprenticeship of observation" (Lortie, 1975, p. 65).
Weinstein (1989) asked prospective elementary teachers to describe their perceptions of "a really good teacher" before and after an introductory education course. Preservice teachers did not change their perceptions of what constitutes a good teacher across the span of the semester. This was interpreted as evidence that preservice teachers already possess strong beliefs about the constituents of effective teaching and that these beliefs are little affected by a single course. Although some movement has been demonstrated in a five-year teacher-preparation program, from a more affective-social orientation to increased emphasis on curriculum and classroom management (Morine-Dershimer, Saunders, Artiles, Mostert, Tankersley, Trent, & Nuttycombe, 1992), it appears (a) that perceptions of effective teachers do not change a great deal across the teaching-experience continuum and (b) that emotional climate constitutes a strong, if not predominant, construct associated with effective teaching, as seen by the entire range of prospective to experienced teachers.
Conceptions of teachers and teaching held by preservice teachers appear to focus more on affective (e.g., caring) than on cognitive issues (Reeves & Kazelskis, 1985). Book, Byers, and Freeman (1983) reported that entering prospective teachers believed that improving student self concept was a more worthy goal than promoting students' academic achievement or creating a good learning environment. At the other end of the teaching-experience continuum, experienced elementary-level teachers also tend to assign preeminent value to affective goals (Prawat, 1985). Even at the college level, perceived physical and psychological closeness ofthe teacher to the student (immediacy) has been shown to be related to perceptions of teaching effectiveness (e.g., Gorham, 1988; McCroskey, Richmond, Sallinen, Fayer, & Barraclough, 1995). Marsh's (1991) reliable factors derived from the student evaluations of thousands of university courses included instructor-student rapport and instructor enthusiasm. Closeness, warmth, and enthusiasm...