Thomas L. Good

Teacher Effectiveness in the Elementary School.

The purpose of this paper is to present tenable conclusions from recent process-product studies. Space limitations prohibit an exhaustive review of extant literature on teacher effectiveness. There are several reviews available for the interested reader (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974; Heath & Nielson, 1974; Rosenshine, 1971, 1976; Gage, 1978; Medley, 1977). Some review works have attempted to clarify the consistency of individual

Classroom research: A decade of progress

The fruits of a decade of research on teaching are discussed in this article. The topics focussed on are time utilization, classroom management, teacher expectations and teacher effectiveness research. The difficulty of translating these findings into practice is discussed. It is argued that the complexities and uniqueness of each classroom make it impossible to follow a simple research‐into‐practice model. Research needs to become more integrative — studying teachers, students, and curriculum simultaneously — and the technology to change practice needs to be better developed.

Expectancy Effects in the Classroom: A Special Focus on Improving the Reading Performance of Minority Students in First-Grade Classrooms

Teacher expectations for students has been an exciting topic of research in educational psychology since the publication of Pygmalion in the Classroom by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968). This article reviews the development of research in this area and notes the rich application value of this literature for social policy issues. The article discusses an intervention program for improving the reading performance of 1st-grade low income minority students in general (and Black low income students specifically). This example is but 1 instance of how this broad research base could be used to improve performance in various social settings.

Designing Successful Classroom Environments for Different Types of Students

* This paper is drawn from a more comprehensive report: Differential Strategies for Classroom Success: A theoretical model (Technical Report No. 100, Centre for Research in Social Behaviour, University of Missouri). This larger report is available upon request from Professor Thomas L. Good, Centre for Research in Social Behaviour, in East Stewart Road, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. The research was supported, in part, by the National Institute of Education Grant NEG‐00‐3‐0123. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institute of Education and no official endorsement from that office should be inferred. General support was also provided by the Centre for Research in Social Behaviour. The authors gratefully acknowledge the typing support of Peggy Bodine and Sherry Kilgore.

How Well Do 1st-Year Teachers Teach: Does Type of Preparation Make a Difference?.

The authors present a program of research on the teaching practices of 1st-year teachers that has evolved within a partnership between and among a university and area school districts. The research links observed 1st-year teaching practices with school level (elementary, middle, high school) and type of teacher preparation (traditional bachelors degree or nontraditional masters degree or postbaccalaureate certification). This study was conducted during 3 consecutive years, and results suggest that 1st-year teachers, as a group, performed adequately. School-level analyses reveal higher quality classroom management practices at the elementary level. Type of preparation analyses reveal higher quality management practices among teachers who attended traditional programs. The potential interaction between school level and type of preparation was not definitive but suggests further research is needed on the match between type of preparation and school level as expressed in quality of teaching practices.

The Classroom Ratio of High- and Low-aptitude Students and Its Effect on Achievement:

Classrooms with “more favorable” teaching situations were defined as those in which more than a third of the students were high aptitude and less than a third of the students were low aptitude. “Less favorable” classrooms were those in which less than a third of the students were high aptitude and more than a third of the students were low aptitude. The stated hypothesis was that the ratio of high-aptitude students to low-aptitude students in the classrooms would influence the mathematics achievement of students. Individual standardized aptitude and achievement data were available for 103 third- and fourth-grade classrooms. The sample was drawn from a large metropolitan school district that basically served a middle-class population in neighborhood schools. Analyses of variance tests indicated that both high- and low-aptitude students in more favorable classrooms had greater achievement gains than comparable students in less favorable classrooms.

The great school debate : choice, vouchers, and charters

Contents: Preface. American Education: How Good Is It and Who Should Control It? Crisis in Public Education: Past and Present. Student Performance in American Schools: An Empirical Report Card. The Emergence of School Vouchers and Choice in American Schools. In the 1990s, Government Created Charter Schools. Charter Schools: Effective Investment or Wasteful Experiment. Charter Schools: Some of the Best and Worst in American Education? Dealing With Complexity and Uncertainty: Moving Schooling Forward. Epilogue: Presidential Election 2000 and Beyond.

The Effects of Instructing Teachers About Good Teaching on the Mathematics Achievement of Fourth Grade Students

Experimental teachers were taught an instructional model based upon previous naturalistic research that had been found to characterize the behavior of effective mathematics teachers. Using a standardized mathematics achievement test administered to students at the beginning and end of the year as the dependent variable, the implementation and effect of the model were analyzed in an analysis of variance design involving the model (experimental and control), four teacher types and four student types. Use of the model proved effective and the nature of the interactions between student aptitudes, teacher style and instructional model helps to interpret the influences on students’ mathematics achievement.

Sex Roles, Classroom Instruction, and Reading Achievement.

University of Missouri—Columbia Boys learn to read more slowly than girls in American schools, and for some years American educators have been concerned about this fact and the problems it poses. Several explanations have been advanced for sex differences in reading achievement, including hypotheses based on physical maturation, female teacher bias, teacher discrimination, feminization of reading, differential response to pupil behaviors, and sex-relevant teaching styles. Each of these hypotheses is conceptualized here, and evidence for and against each hypothesis is reviewed. Current evidence is found sufficient to reject only two of the hypotheses, and it is suggested that more than one of the remaining hypotheses may be needed to explain sex differences in reading achievement. Implications of the hypotheses for classroom teaching are explored. Sex is a strong predictor of human conduct, and many differences have been documented between the attitudes, behaviors, and achievements of males and females (Block, 1976; Deaux, 1976; Frieze, Parsons, Johnson, Ruble, & Zellman, 1978; Katz, Bower master, Jacobson, & Kessell, 1977; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Although controversy has appeared about the size, causes, and implications of these sex differences, there is no disagreement about the contention that male and female sex roles are different in many ways. Given these differences, it is not surprising that people also expect males and females to act differently. Indeed, expectations about sex roles and the evaluations of male and female performance are sometimes more disparate than the observed behaviors and achievements of the two sexes (Goldberg, 1968; Pheterson, Kiesler, & Goldberg, 1971). Such expectations are not mere curiosities. Among other things, they lead adults to socialize young boys and girls in quite different ways, thus perpetuating sex roles in the new generation. So strong is this influence that differences have been detected in the play behavior of 1-year-old boys and girls (Goldberg & Lewis, 1969), and substantial differences appear in Requests for reprints should be sent to Barbara J. Bank, Center for Research in Social Behavior, 111 East Stewart Road, Columbia, Missouri 65211.

Gender Differences in the Academic Locus of Control Beliefs of Young Children

A statistical combination was conducted on past research examining gender differences in the locus of control beliefs of elementary school children. The review revealed that females tend to score more internally than males in totaland failure-outcome locus of control, as measured by the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) Scale. A new administration of the IAR (N » 425) revealed significantly more female internality for both success and failure outcomes—but only at the end of the school year. Also, females cited effort as the cause of success more often than males. These results are at odds with those found in studies that manipulated success and failure events. Possible reasons for the reversal are discussed. The results suggest (a) greater female internality exists in elementary school, but the gender difference is small; (b) the roots of lesser female adult achievement behavior may not be found in elementary school belief systems; and (c) it may be improper to conclude that young females express a helplessness pattern of attributions with regard to the achievement domain.