Evidence suggests that student teachers are affectively disposed to examples of directive over nondirective supervision. Future research should examine tentative findings that student teachers prefer supervisors of the opposite sex. (Author/CJ)

Fifty-four male and female student teachers' preferences for direct or nondirect supervision and male or female supervisors were sampled by recording their reactions to one of four randomly assigned supervisory conferences, which differed in relation to the direct or nondirect behavior of the supervisor and to the supervisor's sex. A significant…

Student teachers, after listening to two taped supervisory conferences, rated the more directive supervisory behavior (typified by declarative and expository statements and an authoritarian posture) as more desirable. Discrepancies between these results and those of earlier studies are discussed. (MJB)

Two studies evaluated student teachers' preferences for directive or nondirective supervision. Both studies revealed a significant preference for the directive approach, contradicting much current theoretical writing. A third followup study showed student teachers' initial preference for the directive method gave way to the nondirective approach…