Teaching is complex and layered. The premise of this paper is that teaching is worthy of being an object of systematic inquiry, and that such inquiry will help to clarify and potentially improve the character of teaching. It has also been assumed that a useful approach is to differentiate within teaching those aspects which can and usually are…

A study examined the relationship between teacher use of power and teacher effectiveness in samples of adult learners and traditional undergraduate students. The primary goal was to provide educators with practical information that may assist them in adapting their classroom communication styles to different student audiences. Subjects, 71…

Institutions of higher learning must focus on new ways to serve the at-risk student and the black male at-risk student in particular. By developing and implementing a plan, any teacher can foster retention of at-risk students, even in the absence of institutional support. Twenty effective techniques are: (1) learn students' names; (2) assign…

An assignment was developed that requires each student in a communication class to observe the dynamic of classroom communication. In this way, both the students and the professor receive feedback about various communication roles both can take. Systematic observation systems can be defined as part of classificatory systems that record certain…

A study explored the match between teachers' expectations for book reports and the outcomes their students exhibit. Subjects, 67 fourth graders, 61 seventh graders, and 56 tenth graders from low, middle, and upper income groups in 9 schools in 2 different school systems, completed a questionnaire that included questions concerning their…

As a radical supplement to multiculturalism a liberatory pedagogy is needed that explicitly challenges social conditions and ideologies that reproduce inequality. In training new teaching assistants of composition, a teacher used Jane Tompkins'"Pedagogy of the Distressed" to try an experiment in critical pedagogy. In her text, Tompkins…

This portrait of a high school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Karen Dunne and her tenth-grade class of average…

Proactive teachers do not simply react to student behavior but use their thorough understanding of classroom communication to shape the pattern of class interaction. Proactive teachers are characterized by their recognition of the mutual influence of teachers and students in the learning process, their participation in social perspective taking,…

Prompted by research showing that communication is one element that distinguishes teachers rated effective by students from those rated ineffective, a study was undertaken to develop a scale for assessing the perceived communication effectiveness of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Two groups, one of undergraduate students and one of their…

Using audio documentaries as a teaching technique can serve two purposes: provide students with information on any subject and, in the process of producing tapes, introduce writing, listening, research, interviewing, and extemporaneous speaking experiences--all skills that students can later apply to other situations. The live-on-tape format…

Demographic data were collected from college students and their graduate teaching assistant (GTA) instructors and analyzed for the impact of these characteristics on the students' ratings of teacher communication effectiveness. Data collected from the approximately 1,000 students and 60 GTAs included age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, home…

Three points are basic to communicative teaching. First, we do not know how language is learned and so cannot follow rigidly any one procedure in teaching a language. Secondly, teaching is not the obverse of learning. Teaching can be controlled, and the relationship between teachers and learners is more than simple input leading to output. Third,…

This investigation determined quantitatively the effects of open and traditional classroom techniques on teacher and student interaction and social environment. (RC)

The concept of school discipline, based on controlling inevitable student misbehavior, has been replaced with "classroom management," which stresses methods of facilitating positive student behavior and achievement. This book attempts to provide teachers, counselors, administrators, and special educators with a comprehensive, practical description…