The development of an instrument for evaluating cognitive growth in preprimary children by means of observational techniques is reported. Areas of growth in pre-mathematic skills were defined for this purpose as: Imitating, recognizing, classifying, matching, comparing, understanding, counting, computing, and measuring. Each is described, and…

Three unproven assumptions may account for the expository teaching used in new social studies which are designed for inductive teaching. 1) It is assumed that teachers and pupils ask questions of a high cognitive level, whereas research and informal observation support the opposite view. 2) Discovery learning requires a pure inductive strategy. 3)…

The training and supervision of teaching assistants in German at Indiana University is summarized. Training through orientation, course work, teaching, visitation, and observation is outlined. Special attention is directed to group observation techniques. The use of video tape recordings and veteran teaching assistants to improve the effectiveness…

The objective of naturalistic observations conducted in schools and homes in the inner city was to relate teacher expectation to pupil behavior. Following kindergarten observations, selected black children predicted as potentially successful and black children predicted as poor achievers were observed in their homes along with their mothers. This…

Reported is the development and field testing of the Science Classroom Observation Form (SCOF), an instrument focusing on the interactive characteristics among students, the environment, and teacher in elementary and junior high school science classrooms. This instrument was developed to be used in research investigations of openness and inquiry…

The results of the classroom observations of students during compensatory reading instruction are described. Sixty-three second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade classrooms across the country were observed using the Student Observation Scale. The scale is two-dimensional enabling an observer to code simultaneously two different aspects of an observed…

This study was designed to determine whether regular Head Start teachers trained as "experimenters" could produce two different teaching modes (combinations of techniques) in two consecutive sessions, using the same lesson content. Each of six Head Start teachers was asked to teach a 10-minute classification lesson to four children,…

The objective of the project was to develop two coding systems, one on teaching strategies and one on pupil involvement in classroom activities. Videotape sequences served as test data for refining the categories. Codings were analyzed for clustering of teaching behaviors into teacher roles and relationships between teacher behavior and pupil…

A general model was built for assessing important complex educational goals. Literature on performance tests, process goals, and verbal protocols were critically examined. Advantages of these methodologies were incorporated into the model which was tested in an individualized mathematics inquiry laboratory which used whole-task approach. Five…

A computerized system is described which assists in collecting and processing interaction analysis data. This type of data can be a valuable source of feedback in such situations as a teachers' inservice training program. In this approach, observed behaviors are classified into one or more of 10 different categories, and a digit is assigned to…

This paper reports on alternative programs to current educational practice as a means of overcoming some institutional barriers to change. The program reported on the Tucson Early Education Model, a comprehensive educational program which encompasses all of the criterial attributes of the open classroom as specified in the introduction to this…

The nature of on-going instructional processes and pupil experiences were studied in two classes of a British infant school. Using PROSE (Personal Record of School Experience) as the primary observation instrument, 24 children, aged five through seven years, equally divided as to sex, were observed during seven days. A total of 9 cycles and 45…

The Florida Parent Education Follow Through Model emphasizes: (1) the training of mothers (two to each classroom) in the role of combined parent educator and teacher auxiliary; (2) training the teacher in the use of paraprofessional personnel; and (3) development of materials for family use which take into account not only the school's goals for…

Studies of the instructional television (ITV) system of El Salvador and its educational reform program for 1972 are summarized. ITV moved into new facilities and the program was increasingly run by native personnel. General ability and reading scores increased, although there was little difference between television and non-television classes.…

A comparative study was made of Mexican secondary teachers in the Telesecundaria (TS), which utilizes televised instructional programs, and in the Ensenanza Directa (ED), which does not. The aim was to describe the teaching done in the TS system, to compare the two systems, and to examine statistically the relation of teaching and learning…