Recommends establishing review processes at both school building and classroom level, and provides checklists for such evaluations. Both together provide a basis for determining the school's handling of equity issues. Also recommends training all school staff with respect to their legal responsibilities. (LHW)

A sociometric instrument assessed the progress of a school system toward integration and provided feedback for teachers. A computer program generated information about classroom social structure, indicating progress in integration in the Springfield public schools. (LHW)

Provides practical suggestions for setting up low-cost programs to help beginning teachers. These include: (a) pairing novices with experienced teachers; (b) giving novices release time to observe experienced teachers in the classroom; and (c) before school starts, holding training sessions and workshops on classroom management for novice…

The SOBR observation technique was used to observe reading instruction in special education resource room programs for mildly disabled students. Disabled and nondisabled students in regular classrooms were also observed. There were considerable differences in reading instruction across programs and students. The amount of reading instruction was…

Examines teachers' knowledge and understanding of classrooms in terms of interpretation of nonverbal and situational clues. Two sets of videotapes of classroom episodes, one in Hebrew and one in Dutch, were viewed by both Dutch and Israeli teachers in cross-cultural settings. Analysis of responses yielded insights into the two cultures.…

Overreliance on test-based assessment of learning disabilities can produce diagnostic results of questionable validity and prove stigmatizing for the child. An instructional-based model focuses on evaluation of the child's response to teaching. Observation and analysis of the student's reaction yeilds results that are more readily translatable…

Two groups of children who had attended open and traditional classrooms, respectively, for three years were compared. Multivariate analyses of repeated measures showed that open-classroom subjects had higher scores in social problem-solving cognitions, self-esteem, and ego strength. (Author/BW)

Observations of four students, from their second through fourth grades, as they evaluated compositions revealed, among other findings, that (1) affective responses tend to dominate quality judgments, (2) the number of criteria children used in arriving at quality judgments increased over time, and (3) evaluation criteria are used in both planning…

The verbal behaviors classification system was used to examine teacher-student interaction. Observations were made during classroom instruction. Verbal interaction was found to be asymmetrically contingent, while substance level interaction appeared to be reciprocally contingent. Results are extended and related to the theory of instruction and…

A cost effective intervention method was designed to demonstrate the practical implementation of classroom social skills training. Subjects were identified as withdrawn by the teacher. Social skills intervention was begun after a pretest observation. Behavioral change indicative of improved targeted social skills was noted at posttest…

A study was conducted of ten open education schools to discover what happens in open classrooms and to learn about the theory behind the practice of open education. (MM)

This research inquires whether an ethnographic (descriptive anthropology) approach to the study of teaching could yield new insights into the teaching-learning process. (MM)

Researchers followed 2 language minority children through their first 2 years of school, examining the influence of their parents and of school practices. Two cohorts of minority language students were followed from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade. Students were observed once a week in their classrooms. Researchers kept…

The importance of examining classroom processes was highlighted in a 1992 British report on primary education, which emphasized the role of classroom management. Before that, several studies determined that misbehavior was small-scale and not widespread. For example, the 1989 Elton Report was a national policy document that described the extent of…

This paper describes how researchers at SRI International's Center for Technology and Learning designed and used an observation tool as part of its evaluation of a local Technology Innovation Challenge Grant program called Challenge 2000: Multimedia Project. The paper aims to present both the process and the tool that researchers, program…