This experiment examines the causal effect an electronic classroom response system (ECRS) has on students. Previous studies using an ECRS in the classroom indicate improved performance; however, many have confounds typical of classroom studies. To complement these studies, we conducted a laboratory study to minimize these confounds and concentrate…

Experiments were devised to determine teacher effectiveness on the basis of ability to communicate, on the assumption that no relevant learning will occur if communication is faulty. A series of communication games involved an encoder (teacher) and decoder (student) to provide tentative answers to the questions: 1) Are there individual differences…

In the first of two experiments, positive and negative expectations about a teacher were induced in a student who was about to be taught by that teacher, and both verbal and nonverbal measurements were taken. Results showed that subjects responded quite directly to the experimental manipulation. In the second experiment, a student simulated some…

To determine whether increased teacher use of student ideas would produce increased verbal initiation, an experiment was conducted with 16 second grade teachers and their classes. First, a series of observations were made under normal class conditions to determine the usual percentages of teacher use of student ideas and student initiation. Then,…

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of interaction analysis feedback on the verbal behavior of student teachers. Forty randomly selected senior elementary education students at the University of South Florida were trained in interaction analysis, and each was observed for eight weekly 15-minute periods during student teaching. Data,…

To test the hypothesis that if given a curriculum designed to develop cognitive functioning and taught by strategies designed to develop cognitive skills, students would then master more sophisticated symbolic thought earlier and more systematically than could be expected if this development had been left to the accidents of experience or if…

This project, "Many Right Answers: Learning in mathematics through speaking and listening", was initiated to address two issues in the teaching of secondary mathematics: (1) speaking and listening and its relevance to engaging the disengaged; and (2) the use of speaking and listening by teachers of mathematics as part of their Continuous…

This report reviews 3 demonstration studies in which the Topic Classification System of classroom interaction analysis (a system of analyzing teacher objectives and student performance) was applied to 3 samples of classroom behaviors to determine the range and limitations of the system. In the introduction the system is discussed with reference to…