Practitioner research should be sufficiently trustworthy "and" useful. We argue, however, that although criteria of trustworthiness are rather well developed, criteria of usefulness are not. As a result, the long-term impact of practitioner research is rather disappointing because, we contend, it tends to lack practicality. We used…

This article provides a situated perspective on the person-centered classroom management practices described in this issue, in order to highlight the special contribution these practices make to sustaining meaningful student engagement in classroom activity. Building on Paul Gump's efforts to conceptualize the classroom environment, the discussion…

School discipline addresses schoolwide, classroom, and individual student needs through broad prevention, targeted intervention, and development of self-discipline. Schools often respond to disruptive students with exclusionary and punitive approaches that have limited value. This article surveys three approaches to improving school discipline…

In exploring the question of teaching effectiveness research, this essay provides historical insight, an analysis of present day uses of this research data, and examples of the potential utility of this research. (MM)

Discusses the premise that the environmental demands of teaching in classrooms interact with performance both to shape observed behavior and to establish limits on the range of response options. (SB)

Study focused on microteaching and the effects of this particular mode of skill training on the classroom performance of student teachers. (Author)

This article argues that researchers, in their efforts to refine measures of teacher behavior, have neglected many of those interconnected processes and events which impinge upon behavior in the teaching environment. This, in turn, has fostered inadequacies in the models used to explain factors influencing teacher behavior. (RC)

This report contains an analysis of the mechanisms that connect teaching processes to student achievement and the circumstances contributing to the establishment of treatment conditions in classrooms. The first section is focused on the way in which academic tasks operating in a classroom influence the quality of student learning. The second…

This essay explores the importance of the classroom environment on teaching and learning, and suggests a framework for conducting further research in the field. (LH)

This article cites various research studies on matching learning and teaching styles and discusses possible problems of this approach. Several aspects of matching learning and teaching styles are offered for consideration: the effect of teaching on learning, classroom management, and how styles affect classrooms. (DF)

The interpretive review in this paper is directed toward a reformulation of teacher effectiveness questions. The analysis uses Kuhn's concept of paradigm to designate a framework which defines problems, methods, and solutions for a research community. The dominant process-pruduct paradigm in teacher effectiveness research is contrasted with two…

Published reports of curriculum innovation were used to develop an analysis of factors contributing to teacher reaction to change proposals. Premised on the theory that a more thorough understanding of naturally existing mechanisms operating in school environments would enhance the development of effective change strategies, the analysis focused…

The emphasis of this article is on students and the evolving character of their affiliation with schooling. It compares school conditions of the 1890s with those of 1970s, and presents a brief and selective review of professional literature on school discipline published during this 80-year span. (Author/RK)

As part of a larger effort to understand how classrooms are managed, this study used narrative descriptions of class sessions conducted by seven junior high school English teachers to map the way order was achieved under different circumstances. The basic unit for analysis was the classroom activity, characterized by an identifiable focus or a…

This paper contains a description of the status of a project on student information processing responses that mediate teaching effects in classroom settings. The central activity of the project is the construction of a conceptual model that relates classroom task structures to student information processing and to subject-matter achievement. The…