This study examined emotional climate in relation to the teaching and learning of grade 7 science. A multi-method and multi-theoretic approach used sociocultural frameworks as a foundation for interpretive research, conversation analysis, prosody analysis, and studies of nonverbal conduct. Emotional climate varied continuously throughout a lesson.…

The interactions between teachers and students provide a venue for instructional delivery and ultimately student achievement in the school setting. However, not all students experience positive interactions with teachers in the typical classroom setting, especially those students exhibiting behavioral challenges. These students are observed with…

Based on a theoretical model developed by Schlechty, this case study focuses on a small high school, located on a college campus and designed to address the educational needs of gifted 9th- through 12th-grade students. Eight teachers who taught 9th- and 12th-grade classes and their 60 students were observed. Each teacher was observed during six…

Examines the roles and relationships involved as a first-grade teacher and her students built a classroom community that supported the children's acquisition of literacy. Shows how the teacher helped the children and how she got out of their way to allow them to take control of their own learning and curriculum. (SR)

Studies the moral dimension of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching to adults. Analyzes examples of classroom interaction to reveal the moral substrate of the teacher's words and actions. Finds that various features of classroom routines and impromptu exchanges have profound moral significance. Suggests that the moral meanings present in…

Focuses on student and teacher perceptions of psychosocial characteristics of the elementary school classroom environment. Profiles, comparing actual and preferred classroom environments, were assessed using the following five dimensions of the My Class Inventory (short form) (Fisher and Fraser): satisfaction, friction, competitiveness,…

Finds that a significant relationship exists between teachers' use of affinity-seeking strategies and student perceptions of classroom climate. Shows that 19 of the 25 strategies were correlated with classroom climate, and that communication teachers regularly used 19 of the 25 strategies. (SR)

In this research report, classrooms are seen as affective learning environments in which human relationships expand or restrict the quality of learning. The two-part report discusses (a) fundamental differences in social structures among classrooms, as measured by the Centrality-Diffuseness Index (C-D Index); and (b) relationships between the…

Important classroom management tasks occur during the first several weeks of the year, when the teacher establishes expectations about behavior and teaches the students the classroom procedures. (Author)

"Sharing the ownership of knowing" (a constructivist concept of motivation for literacy learning) is a dynamic classroom interaction in which a teacher's constructivist epistemological stance facilitates students' sense of their own construction of meaning and the integrity of their own thinking. Sharing the ownership of knowing was one…

Many researchers have begun to investigate possible predictors for the problems that beginning teachers may or may not face early in their career (often many of the problems faced are related to establishing and maintaining 'order' in the classroom). Two broad factors related to this problem were identified: (1) interpersonal aspect of teacher…

Since teaching is fundamentally a decision-making process, analyzing teachers' decisions can lead to a better understanding of learning and of management in the classroom. Three major features of teacher decision making are (1) that teaching is an intensely active profession; (2) that most of the work of teaching occurs in a group setting; and (3)…

This report presents data obtained from an experiment in student teaching behaviors designed to suggest an explanation for the previously detected relationship between cooperating teacher behavior and student teacher utilization of skills acquired during microteaching training. In order to determine if one or the other explains more effectively…

The purpose of this research was to conduct a preliminary analysis of a new instrument designed to measure the psychological environment of the classroom. The instrument, the Classroom Environment Index (CEI), has been developed in an initial form. The structure was essentially the same as the other Syracuse Indexes (College Characteristics Index,…

Observation data from 46 classrooms demonstrated the importance of context in understanding teacher behavior. Student-teacher interactions for explaining and giving directions occurred a statistically different number of times in self-paced and other-paced (group or interactive) settings. (Author/GDC)