A comprehensive observation study of classroom processes and instructional practices in Follow Through Planned Variation projects (FT) was completed in August of 1974. FT was evaluated primarily to determine whether educational innovators were able to implement their model programs of compensatory education in several diverse sites. Thirty six…

The development of a contextual classroom observation system is described. The system consists of an instrument, trained observers, data handling, and analysis. Thus, instrument development was necessarily paralleled by the development of training procedures, data recording and processing systems, programming, and analytic techniques. The…

Teachers' knowledge of effective use of time research can be examined via a paper/pencil test; however, the degree to which teachers used the identified effective practices can only be observed and recorded. What is proposed here is an objective observation of teaching practices. Based upon research findings, criterion levels would be established…

This report describes the third year of the national Follow Through Classroom Observation study. The aims of the study were: (1) to assess program implementation at one site for each of 12 sponsors; (2) to search out the relationships between child outcomes and teaching-learning processes; and (3) to estimate which programs incorporate processes…

Observer reliability and the confusability of codes, two sources of error in the collection of classroom observational data, are examined. Confusability is defined as the extent to which one code is mistakenly recorded as another code. Observational data were collected in each of 172 first grade and 171 third grade Follow Through and comparison…

A complex research and development process is required to study instructional processes and student outcomes effectively. In order to study the instructional process it is essential to select or develop instruments that can describe a total event. Understanding the classroom process necessitates having a record of the environment, the materials,…

During the first phase of a three-phase study of teaching basic reading skills in the secondary schools, 43 secondary-school reading classrooms were observed for three days, and the relationships between teaching processes and students' gains in reading were examined. Data were recorded with the Secondary Observation Instrument, and the Classroom…

This fourth report of Follow Through Classroom Observation data, collected in Spring 1973 from 37 sites representing seven sponsors who participated in the planned variation studies, focuses upon the question of whether sponsors can deliver their educational systems to diverse kinds of communities. It is a study of the effects of training…

Findings from a 607 page report, "Follow Through Classroom Observation Evaluation 1972-1973," are briefly summarized. The report is based upon systematic observation of Follow Through classrooms in action. Two key questions have been asked: (1) How well is each of seven instructional models carried out within the classroom? and (2) Are…