Whether the advantages of video-tape outweigh the initial obvious difficulties depends on one's basic attitudes to teacher training. Video-tape can serve the demonstration and practice aspects of the methods course in unique ways by providing the language teacher with an "invaluable" means to (1) observe and analyze the teaching of others and (2)…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of teacher rating and observational techniques in the evaluation of a preschool program for emotionally disturbed children. Eleven children (nine boys and two girls) participated in the project occurring within the preschool program during one academic year. Teacher ratings were felt to…

This abstract of a larger study provides a synthesis of the procedures for evaluating classroom teachers. The study was designed on the structured interview technique and 80 interviews were gathered from 40 randomly-selected evaluators and the 40 teachers whom they had evaluated. The criteria on which the interview instrument was based are…

This paper represents an effort to explain the language development of the child within the analytic frame of overtly observable data and without recourse either to mathematical models or to postulating hypothetical underlying forms. From longitudinal studies of two-year old children conducted by the author as well as from similar data reported in…

Thirty-one 4-year-old Negro boys attending a research preschool in Chicago were observed during a play session. Preliminary evaluation of the data from the observations indicated a marked heterogeneity in the subjects with regard to verbal facility, cognitive development, and quality and nature of object relationships. Poor correlation was found…

This is a progress report on the development of a maternal behavior scale, one which would reflect both the actual behavior of a mother when confronted by her child's activities and also show the behaviors instigated by the mother in the child's presence. The ultimate goal of the research is to produce a human behavior scale which will record the…

A study concerned with the description of courses of action used by teachers successful in achieving classroom control is part of a larger effort to identify effective teacher behaviors which could be useful in training future teachers. The observation technique used followed a "rule-following" model (based on the Descriptive Psychology of P.G.…

The object of this study was to determine the extent to which children displayed predictable, recurring patterns of behavior when engaged in self-selected activities. Subjects were four girls and three boys, 4 years of age, all from middle class urban families. The classroom's free play space was divided into four equal areas. Toys were divided…

The system of interaction analysis employed in this instructional module is "The Instrument for the Analysis of Science Teaching" (IAST), which has fourteen categories: eight for teacher talk, four for student talk, and two special categories. By using the IAST base, the indirect-direct climate of Flanders can still be considered; and, in…

What needs to be done with preschool programs is to define specifically their desired product (the behaviors we want in the children) and to determine the optimal process by which this product can be brought about. Using an instrument called the Observation of Substantive Curricular Input in 1967-68, a coding system based on a series of 3-minute…

The APPROACH (A Procedure for Patterning Responses of Adults and Children) technique was used to code observations of behavior and setting in this ecological study of adult-child cognitive communication patterns. The subjects observed were 32 children who proportionately represented each of four age groups (1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years)…

This teachers guide in behavior modification is divided into five chapters. Chapter one, "Describing Behavior," presents methods for specifying behaviors in precise wording, labeling behavior, and deciding on the target behavior (behavior designated for modification). Chapter two, "Measuring Behavior," describes and illustrates by means of graphs…

Examined was the ability of parents of 12 deviant and 12 nondeviant boys, age 4-8 years, to bias home observation data by influencing their child's behavior in socially desirable and undesirable directions. The parents were given the response set to present their child as "good", "bad", and usual (normal) during six 45-minute observations of…

This ecological study is one part of a broad research effort to understand the backgrounds and characteristics of culturally disadvantaged children. The study attempted to provide empirical data which could be used to describe differences in home environments and behavior of three young children from deprived and non-deprived homes. Focus was on…

Interaction analysis, a system for observing and coding the verbal interchange between a teacher and his pupils, is used to study spontaneous teaching behavior and to help teachers modify their behavior. Trained observers classify teacher statements according to; a) acceptance of student feelings; b) use of praise and encouragement; c) acceptance…