Within classrooms, psychologists and teachers use direct behavior observation methods, systematic behavior observations (SBOs) and direct behavior ratings (DBRs), to gather information about students' behaviors for the purposes of making decisions related to diagnosis and classroom management or behavioral feedback respectively. Observers use SBOs…

Arguably one of the most valuable tools for investigating pupil behaviour in an educational environment is systematic classroom observation. Classroom observation is often cited as having the potential to enable research of the learning process in action. Low inference classroom observation instruments are designed to record a sequence of data…

The goal of this research is to analyze the instrumental behavior of the caregiver at the Emmi Pikler nursery school in Budapest while dressing children from two to three years old to go outdoors to play in the garden. In order to study this routine in its usual context, the observational methodology has been chosen, adopting an "ad hoc"…

Two years after participating in a replication of the Stallings Effective Use of Time (EUOT) Program, ten teachers were re-observed and interviewed to determine the extent to which they had maintained the measured changes in their behavior patterns. Subjects were selected for the follow-up from a 27 EUOT teacher sample based on having exhibited…

The findings of this study support the argument made by many learner autonomy scholars that the road to autonomy is a process conditioned by each individual's zone of proximal development (ZPD) and that there are different degrees of autonomy. The description of behavioural patterns found from the experiment supports this notion. The findings show…

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,…

Provided for regular and special class teachers is a list of questions for observing student behavior in eight areas: independent work, organization, written work, teacher-directed activities, oral language, cafeteria behavior, relationship with peers and motor ability. (CL)

Macroanalysis is a technique by which behavior patterns can be identified from any observational data are collected in a manner that preserves the sequence of the individual codes. (MM)

The study presents a methodology for collecting detailed naturalistic data on preschool teachers' instructions and children's compliance as well as a descriptive analysis of variables related to instruction rate and compliance probability. The study also illustrates the effects of context on teacher and child behavior. (Author/DB)

Results of a naturalistic, observational analysis of 43 self-contained classrooms serving severely handicapped students indicated that during designated instructional periods, slightly less than half of all student time was spent on-task. When students were on-task, almost two-thirds of their time involved nonfunctional instructional tasks.…

This is the final report of a research project. The goal of the project was to record a large collection of mathematical performances by students and to develop a system for analyzing these performances. The subjects observed included students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 and three adult groups. Four specific results are reported: (1) a large…

The technique of macroanalysis has been developed to facilitate the process of examining patterns of behavior. In this technique, sequentially recorded observational data are computer-analyzed in units of three or more codes. Behavior patterns that have been identified from observational data are collected so that the sequence of individual…

A behavioral mapping observation procedure was employed in three classrooms with 19 autistic students (6-14 years old). Eight behaviors were observed in five typical classroom settings. The results indicated that within a classroom environment, particular settings were associated with or "wedded to" high rates of particular behavior and low rates…

Describes the underlying theory and procedures in developing a reliable category system for systematic observation of teacher-pupil interaction in high school biology classes. The instrument has five dimensions comprising the evaluative, cognitive, procedural, pupil-talk, and silence dimensions which are further divided into forty-five categories…

The 99 observation systems described in this anthology describe measurable categories of behavior, rather than global concepts. These systems function as a meta-language--a language for describing communication. Each represents one or more of seven major categories: affective, cognitive, nonverbal, activity, content, sociological structure, and…