This edited collection provides a state-of-the art overview of research on willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second and foreign language. In particular, it includes innovative studies seeking to demonstrate the ways in which WTC can be examined within the framework of complex dynamic systems, how the construct is related to self-assessment,…

Constructs an effective and scathing criticism of the lack of supervision involved in one university's student teaching program. Includes a personal narrative of a student teacher dealing with confusing policies and sexually aggressive and drunken students without the benefit of support or supervision. (MJP)

Describes the development of a scale for evaluating music student teachers' rehearsal effectiveness. Includes scale items representing aspects of rehearsal effectiveness for three interpretable factors: conducting technique, teacher-student rapport, and instructional skills. Advises that scaling of rehearsal effectiveness should be only part of a…

The attitudes and expectations of five cooperating teacher-student teacher dyads toward students in two predominantly Mexican American schools were investigated. Data were obtained from participant journals, interviews, conferences, and classroom observations. This paper presents profiles of the dyads, with summaries of teachers' attitudes and…

A program was designed for training secondary school trainee teachers in expressive nonverbal behavior and for assessing the effect of various combinations of different training elements. The program was developed on the basis of nonverbal descriptors of "enthusiastic teaching": vocal delivery, eyes, facial expression, gestures, and eye contact…

A study tested the hypothesis that elementary school teachers who were less authoritarian in their beliefs were more effective in the classroom. The independent variable was the California F-scale score of the 142 subjects (all education graduates of Tennessee Technological University), while dependent variables were measures of classroom…

Research on teaching has recently focused on the cognitive aspects of teachers' work, using a variety of verbal report procedures. It is argued that the models implicit in this research frequently underestimate the complexity of teachers' professional thinking and that teachers' verbal report data reveal characteristics of teaching which research…

A study related the communication responsiveness of instructors to the affective and cognitive outcomes of students in basic speech communication courses. Specifically, the study investigated both the instructors' overall responsiveness and their responsiveness as climate makers. The communication responsiveness of instructors was measured by the…

Since the late 1960's, researchers have been concerned with the influence of teacher expectations on student performance. Teacher expectations generally can be categorized into three types: assessments of ability, predictions of progress, and natural discrepancies between teacher estimates and actual student performance. Expectations can have the…

Behavioral psychology studies were reviewed in an examination of the relationship between individual concept levels and teaching behaviors. It was observed that high concept level student teachers helped their students evaluate information and formulate hypotheses more frequently than did low concept level student teachers. It was also found that…

This study tested the validity of the prevalent assumption that a teacher's understanding of the nature of science, in and of itself, is related to changes in the conceptions of his/her students and identified the classroom dimensions (such as teacher behavior and classroom ecology) significantly related to changes in students' conceptions. Data…

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between early family experiences of student teachers and observed teaching behaviors in preschool settings. A total of 109 students enrolled in teaching practicums at two locations completed a background information questionnaire. Subjects' teaching behaviors were noted by trained…

A set of dimensions for describing teacher discussion style is presented in this paper written in 1963. In the task dimension, teacher style is defined in terms of statement posture (positive or negative assertion), discussion posture (teacher's attitude toward information, e.g., descriptive, analytic), statement types (value judgments or factual…

Explores one possible explanation for why student teaching of elementary science diverges from principles emphasized in methods courses. The explanation explored states that a student teacher in the classroom is influenced mainly by immediate situational analysis, rather than principles emphasized in coursework. (LZ)

Research on classroom reading practices reveals a heavy emphasis on teacher monitoring and management of materials. Little evidence exists of teacher explanation in reading, and little is known about the qualitative dimensions of such instruction. With this in mind, a study was designed to provide descriptions of explanations used by effective…