This study examined the relationship between observed classroom behavior (teacher-pupil interactions) and reading achievement. An elementary school reading teacher and six students with different coping styles were observed six times in each of 41 classrooms during the school year. Pretest and posttest reading scores, a measure for socioeconomic…

Discusses a segment of research which involved both participant and non-participant observation from September 1967 to January 1970 of the school, home, and peer experiences of a group of approximately 30 black children, emphasizing the problem of alleviating the suspicion and winning the trust of the teachers and principals in the elementary…

The Classroom Interaction Analysis Index (CIAI) was developed to categorize the actions of teachers and students as they interact in classroom situations. The CIAI rating system is easy to learn and easy to use. Experience has shown that the average teacher or supervisor can use it effectively after three or four one-hour sessions. The purpose of…

The five chapters of this report describe the development of a descriptive model of writing instruction in grades three through six. Data reported came from a study that included observations of 160 classes of writing instruction in eight classrooms throughout one school year. Following the first two chapters, which offer an overview of the study…

A program designed to help student teachers improve their skills through interaction with their peers is described. The Peer Group Support System (P.G.S.S.) is a self-evaluation process. Participants in the P.G.S.S. are elmentary student teachers, secondary student teachers, selected students enrolled in general methods courses and the faculty of…

Peer observation is discussed as an aid in instructional development, rather than a method for teacher evaluation. A team effort, consisting of from three to four peers who observe each other from four to seven times during the span of one term offers the greatest likelihood that instruction will be improved. Whether these groups are elective or…

The Carroll County (Georgia) Competency-Based Teacher Certification Project developed a measure of teacher effectiveness, the 341-item Georgia Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness, based upon five previously published classroom observation systems. Three concerns were drawn from the development of this instrument: (1) the reduction of observational…

A study was undertaken as part of the process of trying to develop an instrument for systematically coding reading and other language arts activities in the secondary content area classroom. Six teachers chosen from five secondary schools were each observed while teaching four randomly selected classes over a two-week period. All observations were…

The use of an observational assessment instrument designed for autistic children is described. The Behavior Rating Instrument for Autistic and other Atypical Children (BRIAAC) measures behavior in eight developmental areas: relationship to an adult, communication, drive for mastery, vocalization and expressive speech, sound and speech reception,…

During a year-long study, the social settings in a grade 3 and grade 4 classroom were examined to determine the effects of the communities on what and how the children read for leisure. Maps of the actual physical setting of the school and classrooms were made, typologies or classifications of the social structures in the class and school were…

Ethnographic research in reading examines process more than outcomes of instruction, considers environmental factors, and studies the behavior of individual learners. There are few descriptive studies in reading to guide researchers in ethnographic research. Some aspects of planning such a study include gaining permission from school…

This three-part report describes activities of a multicultural education training project for elementary teachers in San Francisco. The three segments of the project discussed are the workshops for trainers, networking activities, and classroom evaluation activities. The two workshops, Provisioning the Multicultural Classroom and Working with…