Criticisms leveled at readiness tests in general by a variety of early childhood groups and at reading tests in general by reading researchers certainly appear to be valid for traditional paper and pencil reading readiness tests. These reading readiness tests have not kept pace with advances in early literacy instructional techniques, such as…

Prompted by the increased use of behavior rating instruments in educational environments and evidence of confusion over the interpretation of labels designating behavior clusters, the present two-phase study analyzed 410 specific items contained in seven behavior rating instruments and investigated whether these items could be intuitively sorted…

"Stimulated recall" is a generic term used to identify a variety of interviewing techniques designed to provide access to teachers' thoughts during interactive teaching. The methods usually involve audio or videotape recordings of classroom activities, whereby teachers are to "recall" what they were thinking at the actual time of the taping by…

A peer coaching approach was developed for use in the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Training Program (MDTP) at the University of Florida, in collaboration with Old Dominion University in Virginia. The MDTP provides diagnostic services to elementary-aged children with learning, behavior, and/or medical problems. The peer coaching model includes…

This paper attempts to discover and describe the salient common factors constituting four high school science teachers' role conceptions. In a year-long ethnographic study, two researchers worked as participant observers in various science classroom settings at an urban high school. Teachers in charge of these classrooms were interviewed on issues…

Instructional leadership is long-term dedication to instructional excellence that includes both instructional and school management issues. Recent research suggests that effective principals can make a significant difference in their schools' instructional programs through a combination of personal traits, particularly a strong belief in their…

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative magnitude of the variance components and generalizability coefficients derived from the Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI) data using two different methods of data collection: (1) occasions when observers were in the classroom for simultaneous observation and (2) occasions when…

As part of a study of the language used to conduct daily business in typical West German classroom situations, 30 native English speakers observed selected classroom interactions and used questionnaires to classify them and paraphrase them in English. The observers were from a variety of English-speaking countries, and some had explicitly…

Presented in this report are results from a study conducted to evaluate the impact of Project Developmental Continuity on children's development and academic achievement. Following the first chapter's introductory overview of the study's objectives and organization, chapter 2 documents the data collection methods and summarizes the analysis…

Intended for adult basic education teachers faced with the need to assess students who are terrified of tests, this resource unit guide presents several devices that can be used to assess both precise and general learning patterns in nonthreatening ways. The opening section of the guide stresses the importance of establishing priorities and goals…

Surveys of 147 special education teachers and observations of 20 practicing teachers and 20 cooperating teachers were used to (1) determine which evaluation procedures are used most often by special education teachers in their evaluation of student progress, and (2) assess the adequacy of those procedures. Survey respondents indicated that they…

The study reported in this monograph represents two years of data collection designed to explore the social meaning of language in naturalistic classroom settings. The first part of the book presents the framework within which the study was carried out. The first chapter explicates the framework provided by prior research on classroom language,…

A Clinical Supervision Training Program was designed for department coordinators for mathematics, science, English, and social studies in four high schools. The program lasted throughout the school year, and included three full-day and one half-day workshops as well as four small group meetings. At the first workshop, the program was introduced,…

Designed to compare instructional strategies and effectiveness of medical school faculty using both in-person and two-way television delivery systems, this paper presents classroom observation data obtained from presentations by seven faculty members of the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University over a 9-month period. It includes a…

The role of principal as supervisor and evaluator of teachers is central to instructional leadership, and this means direct involvement through classroom observation and interaction with each teacher. Principals often neglect this role, with lack of time usually given as the reason. There are other reasons: Interacting with teachers about their…