This study aimed to examine the behaviour of learners across a whole system and in various courses to reveal the interrelation between learners' system interaction, age, programme features and course design. We obtained data from the system logs of 1,634 learners enrolled in distance learning programmes. We performed hierarchical clustering…

Students who are expelled from school often demonstrate the need for alternative learning environments that respond to their academic disengagement as well as their behavioral challenges. Teachers in such environments contend with a variety of student needs while attempting to engage students in the learning process. This grounded theory study…

A risk associated with the use of games in training and education is that players "game the game," instead of focusing on their learning goals. The term "gamer mode" is proposed to describe this attitude. A player with a gamer-mode attitude strives to achieve goals that are optimal for winning the game, but suboptimal with…

The study reported in this paper focuses on teacher perceptions of students' affective or noncognitive behavior in the classroom. Elementary school teachers were asked to describe in writing five events or situations involving students that they judged to be fairly typical and that had occurred in their classrooms. The emphasis was upon events…

The effect of classroom environment on Head Start, preschool and primary grade children is examined in this study which organizes the results of a number of selected studies. The research strategies employed in these studies included observations in specified programs (in-class or by video-tape), tightly-controlled classroom experimentation…

This paper reports on an analysis of some manifest, surface and verbal characteristics of the classroom behaviors of students and teachers in the first, sixth, and eleventh grades of urban Missouri schools selected for their composition relative to black and white population. Findings indicate that: (1) on the average verbal participation by…

Validity is a central issue in use of self-report data for the investigation of teacher thinking. "Triangulation," or use of several data sets to test, corroborate and elaborate each other, is one method for increasing validity of findings. This paper illustrates a process of triangulation of data obtained by three different data…

This report provides a brief review of Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study (BTES) documents from Phase II and Phase III-A, including responses from researchers suggesting variables for future BTES research. Seven basic observable classroom variable domains have been found to receive support from several of the BTES sources reviewed. These seven…

The Student Attributes Coding System has been developed for gathering data about the personal characteristics and classroom behavior of elementary school students selected for observation because they engender predictable attitudes and expectations in their teachers. This system is designed to systematically record and categorize all interactions…

The premise that students are an untapped educational resource and that they provide teachers with a source of individualized instruction provided the impetus for this study. Researchers had two objectives: one, to determine the possibility of developing a typology of peer helping behavior within the classroom; and, two, if possible, to use this…

Findings from the Student Attribute Study, a two-year investigation designed to identify student characteristics and behaviors related to teacher expectations and attitudes are reported. Children in grades two through five who received consistent teacher rankings over a two-year period on one or more of 13 bi-polar scales describing student…