M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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The Vernon-Nay Category Instrument was developed as the result of an experimental project in an inner-city school. The effects of the reorganization of the administration of the school and the total staff participation in a workshop about human relations and communications were evaluated by the change of behavior of fifth- and sixth grade students in the classroom. The Flanders’ Interaction Analysis (assesses teacher-student verbal behavior) would measure change that occurred: however, the Vernon teachers wanted an assessment instrument that could, also, be used in the future, without professional assistance. The F.I.A. observation system was too complex for the staff’s, unassisted, use (statistical interpretation is based on the ratios of direct to indirect verbal teacher behavior, and student responses); many simpler (verbal and non-verbal) observation instruments were examined. No instrument was found to be appropriate for this particular situation. A new, non-verbal, instrument was designed that fit the needs of this staff and could also be used in adult-child situations other than the classroom.

An experimental study of the effects of active participation on student learning was conducted with two levels of treatment of the independent variable. Intact groups were used because it was reasoned that results generated in classroom settings would likely be more generalizable to other classroom settings. The study was conducted in a medium-sized suburban school district mainly residential in character. Five project teachers were trained to teach a lesson on simple probability. Each teacher taught four lessons to fifth grade classes, two with Treatment I (active student participation) and two with Treatment II (no active student participation). The lessons were alike in all possible respects except the treatment. Immediately upon completion of instruction the students were administered a 15-item multiple choice posttest. The lesson and posttest were both researcher-developed instruments. The instruction and testing lasted about one hour for each class. The total number of students was 447. The research hypothesis for the study was that the posttest mean of classes taught with active participation would be greater than the posttest mean of classes taught without active participation. The statistical hypothesis was stated as (mu)(,1) = (mu)(,2). The results of a t-test were found to be statistically significant at the .05 level causing the statistical hypothesis to be rejected and the research hypothesis to be accepted. From this study, it appears that teaching is more effective when active student participation is incorporated into the teaching method. Additional research is recommended to test the retention of the effect and to test the effect with different age groups.

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