Twelve pairs of previously unacquainted 6-month-old infants were observed in the presence and absence of toys; interactive episodes beginning when an infant touched the peer or a toy held by the peer were examined. Results suggested that young peers influence each other's behavior, but the extent to which they do so depends on situational…

Acknowledging that potting is a phenomenon, accepting Gadamer's definition of play, and observing Alex making pots leads to a description that within Alex's potting occur: 1) to-and-fro movement; 2) choices; and 3) transformation. This method may be undertaken to further describe the experience for another potter. (Author)

Sex differences in risk-taking were examined by observing 480 three- to 11-year-old children at four different risk-taking locations at the San Antonio zoo. While girls were just as likely as boys to enter the zoo, at all four of the risk-taking situations, significantly more boys than girls engaged in risk-taking behavior. (Author/RH)

The use of a quasi-equiprobability model in the measurement of observer agreement involving dichotomous coding categories is described. A measure of agreement is presented which gives the probability of agreement under the assumption that observation pairs reflecting disagreement will be equally probable. (Author/JKS)

Intended for teachers of severely emotionally disturbed children, the article reviews the various components of case histories and clinical observations, focusing on how to read the material and ferret out the important issues that will help in planning classroom strategies. A case history of an autistic boy is presented to illustrate the process.…

Informing a teacher prior to an observation had minimal effect on classroom verbal behavior. Teacher verbal classroom behavior was found to be more like the perceived ideal when an observer was present in the classroom. (Author/RC)

Nonverbal behavior tended to reflect whether a teacher was dissembling or truthful. When being truthful, teachers revealed their underlying affective states; but when lying, there was no difference in nonverbal behavior according to affective state. Teachers' nonverbal behavior also tended to occur differentially according to the publicness of the…

Validity data were obtained for an observation instrument designed to assess seven types of competencies for public school principals. Ability to provide product documentation in two areas of administrative responsibility was found to be most predictive of teacher job satisfaction, students' positive evaluation of school climate, and student…

Yorks et al. present a case study of participant observation in an Action Reflection Learning program, labeling researchers as sophisticated barbarians because they have knowledge to ask questions but their distance from the culture might make some questions "barbaric." Baldwin's reaction describes additional challenges beyond boundary…

An educational researcher describes absurdities and paradoxes encountered in the research process, arising from the nature of natural science, subjectivity, education, the profession, the naturalistic paradigm, and ethnography. (SK)

Describes importance and organization of principal classroom visits to observe teaching and learning. Includes six observation checklists that include characteristics of good learning environment, characteristics of good teaching, patterns of teacher behavior, characteristics of student learning, questions to ask students who are on task, and…

Graduate students were trained as raters either using frame of reference (FOR, n=220, behavior observation training (BOT, n=21), or performance appraisal (controls, n=21). They rated videotaped lecturers twice. FOR increased number of behaviors recalled; FOR and BOT improved recall quality. FOR improved rating accuracy even after 2 weeks.…

Recorded adolescents (N=36) in spontaneous conversational settings and in formal interviews. Found analysis of recordings led to postulation of three basic categories: emotive, connotative, and socially coded language programing. (Author/ABL)

Assessed the effects of three different methods of observation of couples (one-way mirror, audio recording, and video recording) on 30 volunteer, nonclinical married couples. Results suggest that types of observation do not produce significantly different effects on nonclinical couples. (Author/ABL)