This study investigated the effect of locale, grade, and subject on instructional quality. Rural and urban teachers were observed teaching grades 4, 5, and 6 in social studies, mathematics, and language arts. It was hypothesized that teacher verbal behavior in a classroom predicated the quality and quantity of cognitive behavior of pupils. Rural teachers were observed to produce more "seek" and significantly fewer "reject" verbalizations than the urban teachers; they provided more productive critical thinking on the part of their pupils and rejected few pupil utterances. The structure and nature of the curriculum seemed to determine, in part, the kind of verbal interaction that took place in the classroom. Mathematics teachers asked more questions and provided more corrective feedback than social studies teachers. Social studies teachers provided more information directly than did the mathematics teachers. Language arts teachers evoked from their pupils more independent thinking with less emphasis on acquiring specific knowledge of facts. A variation was observed in the verbal behavior of teachers dealing with pupils at different grade levels. The results of this study are discussed in terms of contemporary emphasis in preservice and inservice teacher training practices. (JD)