Describes an in-class exercise using students' discussion of their answers on a multiple choice test to demonstrate the powerful effects and pervasiveness of social influence. After a brief multiple choice test, students discuss their answers with their neighbors and then answer again. Similar response patterns emerge among the participants. (MJP)

Discusses the reaction of Vietnamese students to the spontaneous interaction and exchange that occurs in US classrooms. The article argues that teachers' lack of knowledge about their immigrant students' learning styles and strategies may result in teachers making inaccurate judgments about these students' classroom interaction behavior. (two…

This paper describes how collaboration emerged in a school district-university partnership designed to foster teacher development in the context of elementary science education. The Teachers Researching Inquiry-Based Science project involved four elementary teachers, a school district science mentoring teacher, a school district science…

This article is part two of the three part series of articles entitled "Clinical Problem Solving: The Case of John," with excerpts from Sessions 2-7. In this article, the authors give their responses to sessions 2-7. One author talks about psychodynamic issues and developmental issues, as well as family interaction and intrapsychic problems in…

An overview is presented of classroom observation instruments which have been created and refined since 1962. The components of teacher-pupil transactions measured by different observation methods are listed, and the complexities and difficulties encountered when using the instruments are discussed. A description is given of the Coping Analysis…

A description is given of a course for secondary education majors that is required in the sophomore year. The course combines techniques from microteaching and interaction analysis. A period of clinical experience is included, offering an opportunity for students to observe secondary teachers while acting as teacher aides. They thus became…

The Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI) were designed to determine (for certification purposes) how well teachers can demonstrate certain minimum teaching skills considered essential to effective teaching. An analysis of the five instruments which compose the TPAI is presented. The topics of the five instruments are: teaching plans…

A course in communication skills that is provided to all freshmen dental students at the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry is described. The course is based primarily on the human relations training models of Blakeman (1975), Carkhuff (1969), and Egan (1975), and consists of six modules devoted to the skills of structuring, attending,…

A format is presented for use of student teachers in structuring their classroom observation techniques. Fifteen classroom and school activities are listed with a comprehensive questionnaire accompanying each. These questionnaires guide the student on what behaviors to observe and suggest objective and subjective responses to these behaviors to be…

The Kansas City School Behavior Project was an experiment intended to enhance the social-emotional development of individual pupils through treatment of mild behavioral disturbances and primary prevention programs, utilizing the teachers in their roles as group leaders. The teachers in the experimental group received summer training in the methods…

Student motivation is a cause of great concern for educators at all levels, but perhaps never more so than during the middle school years. Teachers' observations about declines in student interest and confidence in academic tasks are borne out by a number of large-scale empirical studies. In this article, the author examines how teachers create…

Communication imposes a social order and interaction patterns which individuals accept as children, but it is not known to what extent or when in the life cycle preferred rhythms of social involvement and withdrawal are established. To assess the extent to which the elderly lose control of their patterns of interaction, case studies of four…

Weak increases in classroom cohesion for three seventh-grade classes instructed by a mastery learning technique compared to three conventionally instructed classes are demonstrated using block analysis of variance, triadic census (balance theory), and block modelling (role theory) analytic techniques on repeated-measures sociometric rating data.…

A one-year project to explore the use of children's language served as a basis for staff development through the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation. Children's conversations among themselves were observed and recorded within the classroom setting, and the content of the observations were used for planning curriculum and assessing children's…

Peer counseling in high schools provides a developmental growth opportunity for adolescents as well as a valuable outreach service for the Guidance Office. Through intensive small group experience and training, selected students gain insight into their own ideas, needs, and values. They also learn more effective interpersonal and decision making…