Defining and measuring quality in group care settings has become a central issue in the field of early care and education in the United States, particularly as states develop systems to improve child care quality. Most research and policy definitions of quality rely on a top-down perspective focusing on structural and environmental features of the…

The main purpose of this study was to explore teacher-student verbal interaction in the secondary level classes using the Flanders Interaction Analysis system (FIA). Its findings and conclusions may stimulate teachers at the secondary level to improve their teaching behaviour in order to maximize students' learning.

Research supported by the U.S. Office of Education. Reprints from: Joseph M. Masling, Psychological Clinic, State University of New York, Room 211, Townsend Hall, Buffalo, New York 14214.

Teachers possess several strategies to fine-tune their purposive interactions to children's needs. Our study investigates which strategies teachers use in their goal oriented interactions with pupils, whether differentiation is perceptible in the way they interact with children whom they define as "children at risk" as compared to the…

The purpose of this document is to describe two process-oriented classroom observation scales and to report a research study which offers further support for the validity of these instruments. The two observation scales, developed by Harvey, et al., are (1) Teaching Rating Scale, devised specifically as a measure of classroom atmosphere, and (2)…

The author argues here that progress toward greater validity in description through increasingly specifiable standards for quality control is crucial for the advancement of theory as well as for the improvement of method in descriptive studies of classroom life. Some standards for judging the validity of descriptions of classroom action are…

The Reciprocal Category System (RCS) is an observational system used to record and assess teacher-student classroom verbal interaction. The RCS is composed of nine verbal categories which are applicable to either the student or teacher (and as such are numbered differently, thus producing 18 categories) and one additional category--silence or…

Students' evaluations of instructors are indicators of good or bad instruction, but often fail to accurately identify the characteristics of the instruction. An observational system is described which yields relevant information concerning the nature of the instruction. (JP)

An observational system for classroom interaction based on the nature of science is reported. Author reasons that structure of the discipline must be considered while evolving an interaction analysis system. (PS)

Classroom research is caught between lack of rigor and lack of richness. When multiple classrooms are used, and when the performance of different groups or levels of students is regarded as "repeated measures" (or split plots) and analyzed accordingly, much of the descriptive richness of the interactions may be regained. (Author)

With an example of OScAR 5V records from four seventh-grade classrooms, this article illustrates the fact that conclusions in any study depend on decision-making processes. Careful examination of the decision-making process is suggested since resulting judgments and implications are rarely scrutinized. (CK)

New trends in language teaching have resulted in a move towards research in the language classroom. A brief overview of classroom research reveals three distinct but inter-related research paradigms: classroom-centered research, classroom process research, and qualitative research, respectively.

The presentation was given at a Pupil Personnel Service seminar to familiarize the conference participants with the techniques used by a behaviorist when he consults with a teacher using a classroom observational schedule. The report is divided into three parts: (1) method employed (subjects and setting apparatus, training children, instruction to…

The authors employ Bales' IPA and apply hypotheses from Homans' Human Group'' to present a sociological approach to the scientific study of classroom interaction at the elementary school level. (Authors)