Studies are needed that will help teachers match methods with particular objectives, materials, and students. (JD)

The author reviews the basic principles and theory which underly directive teaching: defining behavior, measuring and analyzing behavior, and manipulating environmental variables. (HMD)

The relationship between preactive planning and teacher control of the classroom environment is examined, and various modes of activity, instructional, management, and executive planning routines are discussed. (LH)

The inexperienced teacher should begin the year with a plan grounded in information from effective classroom models. Knowledge of what activities to select, in what sequence to place them, and how to communicate with students about the selected activities might relieve much of the doubt and anxiety that can cloud professional judgment and…

Teachers can improve their practice by listening to, reflecting on, and making sense of practice. Sensemaking strategies include: deductive thinking; inductive thinking; and transductive thinking. (CB)

Methods for encouraging student questions and replying to them are discussed. (JD)

Teachers' attitudes, whether positive or negative, toward their subject and their work have an impact on student learning. (JD)

Effective teaching methods are often used by children tutoring peers and observation of peer tutoring can be fruitful for the teacher. (JD)

Instructional methods are operational exchanges between participants within environments that attempt to produce a learning outcome. The classroom teacher's ability to produce a learning outcome is the measure of instructional competence within that learning method. (JN)

Historical information about how teachers have taught over the past century was reviewed to determine what patterns of teacher behavior have persisted over time, despite reformers' efforts to change them. Although there were periods of change during the 1920s and the 1960s, teacher-centered instruction reasserted itself after reform efforts…