Edmund T. Emmer

Teacher Efficacy in Classroom Management and Discipline

A scale for measuring teacher efficacy in classroom management and discipline is presented, along with results from a factor analysis of intercorrelations of items from the scale and items from two other teacher efficacy scales. Data sources included 119 preservice teacher education students and 42 student teachers. Results are presented indicating that classroom management/discipline efficacy is distinct from other types of teacher efficacy, and that the subscales have acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The data also indicate that efficacy beliefs predict preferences for certain strategies to deal with problems presented in vignettes; however, no relationships were found between self efficacy scores of student teachers and ratings of teaching performance made by university supervisors.

Improving Classroom Management: An Experiment in Elementary School Classrooms.

Few aspects of educational practice have created as much concern as classroom management and organization. They are among the most frequently requested topics for teachers in service; they head the list of concerns of school administrators and have recently attracted more attention from teacher educators and researchers. A teachers ability to manage the classroom and to organize instruction are basic components of effective teaching. Many reviews of research on classroom management already exist (Brophy & Put-

Cooperative Learning in Elementary Classrooms: Teaching Practices and Lesson Characteristics

Characteristics of cooperative learning (CL) lessons were investigated in this observational, field-based study. 18 elementary school teachers (grades 2-6) who were experienced users of CL were observed on multiple occasions and interviewed. In all, 56 CL lessons were observed and described. Field notes of the observations were analyzed to identify the nature of lesson activities, their contents, teacher and student behavior, and characteristics of the academic tasks. Results include summaries both of the lesson characteristics and comparisons of more and less successful lessons based on assessments of student engagement, performance, and cooperation. There was considerable variation in the extent to which lessons incorporated major features of CL. Lesson success was associated with higher levels of individual or group accountability, teacher monitoring, feedback, and the use of manipulative materials in group work.

Adolescent male offenders: a grounded theory study of cognition, emotion, and delinquent crime contexts

Perspectives of adolescent offenders were examined, especially how they define, interpret, and in some cases justify their delinquent behaviors. Grounded theory methodology was used to examine the cognitive, affective, moral, sociocultural, and situational components that influence how and why adolescents commit crimes. A total of 24 adolescent males were interviewed. A theory of delinquent crime contexts emerged. This article focuses on three of these crime contexts: the emotion-driven violent assault, the belief-driven violent assault, and the mixed-motive mixed-crime contexts.

Stability of Teacher Effects in Junior High Classrooms

Estimates of teacher effects on pupil achievement and attitudes in the seventh and eighth grades were obtained for 39 English teachers and 29 mathematics teachers. For each teacher, two classes were tested at the end of the school year; entering achievement was statistically controlled using pupil test data collected at the end of the preceding year. Results indicated strong teacher effects on pupil attitudes in both mathematics and English. Teacher effects on pupil achievement varied depending upon subject matter and class mean initial achievement level.

Direct Observation of Classroom Behavior.

SummaryIn this paper we have examined the uses to which direct observation has been put in the study of classroom processes, and taken note of several observation systems possessing a variety of distinct attributes. Problems encountered in the use of observation, chiefly those of obtaining accurate and stable measures, were explored.Future developments in direct observation procedures seem likely to center around several foci. Knowledge about classroom behavior, its correlates, and its effects requires replication and comparison among studies. Inventing new systems prohibits these comparisons. Therefore, users of direct observation are likely to become more interested in the basic dimensions underlying their observational data. This should facilitate the development of sound, behaviorally based instructional theories.Basic instructional dimensions can also be used to generate new observation systems, which are syntheses of the major components of existing systems and which therefore will allow comparisons to these systems. However, these dimensions will be delimited only if researchers take the trouble to investigate and report them.Finally, the use of observation in research and evaluation should increase particularly to measure process variables intervening between the application of a treatment or a new program and outcome variables. As more educators become aware of the potential information available from observation, and as our knowledge of observation system variables increases, observation seems likely to become a standard procedure in classroom evaluation studies and field research.