Whole-school or whole-class programs designed to promote positive behavior can enhance the likelihood that effective teaching and learning occur for all students. This practice guide is intended to help elementary education educators, as well as school and district administrators and parents, implement and support effective prevention-focused…

Children who engage in chronic problem behavior can present challenges for their early childhood teachers, and are more likely to develop negative relationships with these and other adults with whom they interact. Unfortunately, children who develop negative relationships with their teachers early in their school careers are more likely to have…

Two studies examined the validity and factor structure of the Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation-Checklist, an instrument used to evaluate school-based programs. The checklist is a cost-effective alternative to the original interview format, and the factor structure is consistent across gender, race, age, and time of administration.…

In order to assess the classroom behavior of PLAN students relative to students in other instructional systems, the PLAN Student Observation Scale (PLAN-SOS) was developed. Specifically, PLAN-SOS was designed to measure the percentages of time that students spend performing various behaviors judged to be important to the learning process in a…

Systematic observations of classroom behavior of both teachers and pupils are effective measures of process in education. Until a few years ago, the classroom process--what actually does and does not happen as a result of instituting a new program--went unmeasured for want of tools and techniques to do that job. In this article, examples of…

The authors' experiences in using three different approaches to the study and documentation of processes used in the Experience-Based Career Education model are reported. The approaches used were: ethnography, systematic observation of student behavior in natural settings, and in-depth student interviews. (Author/BP)

What needs to be done with preschool programs is to define specifically their desired product (the behaviors we want in the children) and to determine the optimal process by which this product can be brought about. Using an instrument called the Observation of Substantive Curricular Input in 1967-68, a coding system based on a series of 3-minute…

A two-level model was formulated for the evaluation projects engaged in staff development in the Memphis elementary schools. The model takes into account that such projects are responsible for direct outcome in terms of teacher behavior, and indirect outcome in terms of pupil behavior. The two-level model provides an opportunity for assessing the…

Teaching practices in a total of 273 first and third grade Follow Through classrooms were examined in relation to (1) their consistency with the goals of seven sponsors' educational models, and (2) their effects on children's performance in areas ranging from reading and arithmetic achievement to nonverbal reasoning, independence and school…

Observational findings regarding differentiated child behavior in Follow Through classrooms for the year 1971 are presented. The interactional behavior of three groups of elementary school children from different classroom settings (Bank Street School for Children, an open classroom approach; Bank Street Follow Through, an open classroom approach;…

The purpose of this research was to develop an evaluation technique to assess how effectively children develop as independent learners within classrooms implementing the Tucson Early Education Model. A situational task was chosen in order to gather information about the ongoing open classroom. The Classroom Attitude Observation Schedule was…

This classroom observation manual (Fall 1976) was developed for use in the evaluation of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC), a Head Start demonstration program aimed at providing educational and developmental continuity between children's Head Start and primary school experiences. The manual provides detailed instructions for the observer on…

An eco-behavioral observation system was developed for use with students with behavior disorders or emotional disturbances. Discussed are the ecosystem definition, the student-instructional setting interface, and the assessment procedure, including evaluation of the quality of academic responding, program evaluation, staff development, and…

The behavior of children from a wide range of family backgrounds was observed in elementary school classrooms several years after program services had been delivered. The results indicated that program participants benefited, particularly in the area of academic learning behavior. (Author/BW)

Two different methods of collecting information about student activity in the laboratory were compared using a series of videotape recordings. One method was based entirely on the systematic observation of student behavior (interaction analysis); the second method involved students describing their laboratory activities while watching excerpts…