This study focused on supervisory processes used by primary teachers in Queensland, Australia, who were perceived to be excellent student teacher supervisors. Structured interviews were conducted with 32 supervising teachers working with student teachers, some of whom were also interviewed. Synthesis of data collected from these interviews…

A description is given of the Social Studies Professional Semester at the State University of New York at Albany, a program attempting to provide the elements necessary for the development of reflective teaching. The 16-week program is designed to reduce the separation between clinical field experiences and professional education studies for…

The differential treatment of boys and girls interacting with teachers in day care settings was investigated in this study. Participants were 14 male and 14 female teachers and their 268 students (134 boys and 134 girls) in licensed day care centers located in an urban setting. The oldest toddler class of 2- through 3-year-olds, and a preschool…

There is no easy way to get from research on teaching to teaching practice; moreover, trying to make teaching practices directly out of research can have destructive effects for teaching. Research can be extremely beneficial when results are linked with teachers' goals, and when teachers are aware that a specific occasion is appropriate for…

A workshop was developed based on the work of Jacob Kounin, who identified many variables that are representative of teacher style and are strongly correlated with children's behavior in recitation settings. His work reviewed "desist" techniques employed by teachers to stop children's misbehaviors. The first step in developing the…

Issues pertaining to the validity of student ratings of teacher effectiveness, research on "educational seduction," and implications of the research for the evaluation and improvement of teaching are reviewed. Criteria that have been used to validate student ratings include student achievement, faculty ratings, self-ratings, research productivity,…

Behavioral psychology studies were reviewed in an examination of the relationship between individual concept levels and teaching behaviors. It was observed that high concept level student teachers helped their students evaluate information and formulate hypotheses more frequently than did low concept level student teachers. It was also found that…

The Stanford Research International (SRI) classroom observation system provides a description of the classroom environment with emphasis on interactions between teachers and students and among students. Included in the SRI observation system is the Five Minute Observation (FMO), which records classroom interactions into "frames"…

Increasing consideration is being given in the the United States to moving away from corporal punishment as a discipline alternative. Therefore, it is important to look at the experiences of countries such as Norway that have abolished corporal punishment. In this study, questionnaires regarding classroom management techniques were completed by…

This study tested the validity of the prevalent assumption that a teacher's understanding of the nature of science, in and of itself, is related to changes in the conceptions of his/her students and identified the classroom dimensions (such as teacher behavior and classroom ecology) significantly related to changes in students' conceptions. Data…

A study sought to determine the stability of student/teacher interactional gymnasium behavior over one academic year. The design of the study was a single-subject, time-series analysis. The subject was a male elementary school physical education teacher with 14 years of experience. Data were collected using the Cheffers Adaptation of Flanders…

This paper reports research on differences between teaching in the primary and intermediate grades. Hypotheses concerning differences in teacher behaviors, teacher communications, grouping, teacher control, and types of materials were developed. Six 1st- and 2nd-grade classes and five 4th- and 5th-grade classes were observed for four 45-minute…

This paper reports a study directed toward educational improvement through individual and group change. It is a 3-year naturalistic case study centering on 9 experienced science teachers, 13 novice science teachers, 64 secondary science students, and 4 researchers. The three aims of this study are to know more about: (1) what it is to be a teacher…

This module, developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project, introduces the undergraduate student to practices of teachers in effective schools which facilitate the climate for learning in the classroom. Used with Canter's materials on assertive discipline, the preservice teachers should have an opportunity to reflect carefully…

This publication contains five papers by the staff of the University of Exeter School of Education and by invited outside contributors. The focus is on the changing mathematics curriculum, instructional practices, and research findings. The papers are: (1) "Teaching and Learning Mathematics in the Primary School" (Neville Bennett); (2)…