This paper approaches the task of defining basic teaching skills by identifying essential preactive skills. Piaget's model of cognitive development was used to determine the general goal of teacher training in preactive skills, to identify the three basic kinds of preactive skills necessary for teachers to learn, and to suggest the kinds of…

This study is concerned with preservice primary school teachers (N=100), a group of tertiary students who traditionally come from the secondary school stream. These students have, on the whole, avoided subjects like physics, chemistry, and mathematics that demand a high level of cognitive development for understanding/assimilation of abstract…

This document reports on an observation instrument and data obtained over 2 years as part of the national evaluation of project Follow Through. Data was collected from 70 kindergarten and first grade classrooms involved 7 different experimental programs and including 2 comparison (control) classrooms. The primary instrument used to measure teacher…

This study seeks to identify particular methods most likely to induce changes in philosophical beliefs of teachers compatible with a cognitive developmental teaching approach. Specifically examined were teacher's theoretical understanding in terms of epistemological beliefs consistent with either Piaget's theory of cognitive development or operant…

In an effort to identify the cognitive characteristics of teachers which predispose them to attempt to increase levels of information processing in their classrooms, a theoretical construct--cognitive complexity--was synthesized from the processes of conceptual level, creativity, and categorization. Measures of constructs listed above were…

This report presents the results of two field-based experimental studies to determine the effects of questioning techniques on student achievement and attitudes. The first study was done to determine what student learning outcomes are affected by teachers' use of probing and redirection techniques in classroom discussions. Another purpose of the…

Teachers were designated as more and less effective according to their ability to teach specially constructed reading and mathematics curriculum units over two weeks. They were then studied to determine if their perceptions of classroom interaction and interactive decision making were different. They were also studied to determine whether they…

This book describes the results of film study of every day events in day care. It focuses on teacher and child behavior as they interact at meals, naps, and play, and proposes that minute examination of what actually happens to children in specific situations is necessary to identify the kinds of positive behaviors caregivers want to build on, as…