Linda M. Anderson

Relationships Between Classroom Behaviors and Student Outcomes in Junior High Mathematics and English Classes

Sixty-eight teachers (39 English and 29 mathematics) were observed in two of their class sections with a low-inference coding system designed to record context, teacher, and student behaviors. Relationships among teaching behaviors and student outcomes in mathematics classes suggest that elements of both the direct instruction model and indirect influence model are supported. Results in English classes are less clear.

A Qualitative Study of Seatwork in First-Grade Classrooms

learning opportunities for everyone? Teachers have developed strategies for coping with the complexities of their job and for providing equitable treatment of all students. One common strategy, revealed in studies of time use in elementary schools, is creating time for working with small groups by having other students work independently. In many classrooms, students spend up to 70% of their instructional time doing independent seatwork assignments (Fisher et al., 1978). In this article, we present descriptive data from a study of how well this arrangement works for different achievement

Integrating learner and learning concerns: prospective elementary science teachers’ paths and progress

Abstract This article describes three prospective teachers’ progress toward an integrated view of learner and learning concerns. Two prospective teachers formulated similar questions by the end of their first year about how to balance concerns for individual learners’ experiences in class with concerns that they learn content. However, the two arrived at this point from very different initial conceptions via different conceptual paths during the year. In contrast, the third prospective teacher (same program, same year) prepared to give up content learning goals if they interfered with learners’ enthusiasm about the lesson. Possible explanations and implications for teacher education are discussed.

Editorial Comment: Guest Commentary: Teachers' Theoretical Orientations and the Real Classroom.

A four year‐study of teacher beliefs and conceptions about reading is reported. Teacher beliefs were determined outside the classroom context and while conducting instruction. It was determined that classroom teachers can articulate theories of reading outside the classroom but that their actual instructional practice is governed by a complex set of contextual factors. It is concluded that reading educators must not only teach reading theory but must also help teachers apply theory to the complex instructional context of classrooms.

Within-class Relationships Between Student Achievement and Teacher Behaviors

Data collected on 25 ways in which teachers interacted with first-grade students while the students participated in reading groups within intact classrooms were analyzed with class mean analyses as well as two types of within-class analyses: one that considered small groups within classes as instructional units, and one that examined effects on individual students within the small groups. The pattern of effects differed depending upon the level of the analysis. Particularly striking was the large number of statistically significant relationships that occurred only at the student-within-reading-group level. Apparently, some teacher behaviors took on different meanings for students in the context of a small group, implying that students were very much aware of and affected by their learning environment. The results demonstrate that a combination of within-class and between-class analyses provides a better understanding of the relationship of teacher-student interactions to student achievement than either set of analyses alone.