by Che Tam Sze-chi. / Bibliography : leaves 64-72 / Thesis (M.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

This study examines the impact of personal attributes on student teachers' failure to pass or marginal success in the terminal field experience. Interviews were conducted of faculty at five Washington and two Oregon teacher education programs, who served as supervisors of student teaching. The interview was of the "depth" type described by Masserik (1981,) open-ended, interactive, and designed to encourage the sharing of case histories and subjective experience according to interpretive inquiry protocol as outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985.) Its goal was to surface fundamental assumptions about and idiosyncratic language used to describe those attributes deemed critical to a preservice teacher's success. The format was flexible to allow respondents to guide and determine the final shape of the study (Goetz and LeCompte, 1984.) Interviews were tape-recorded, and transcripts re-submitted to respondents for additions, corrections, and elaborations. Interview transcripts were analyzed by a process of modified analytic induction (Bogdan and Biklan, 1982) and comparative analysis (Spradley, 1979) for recurring precepts and constructs related to personal attributes and the labels used to identify them. These were further collapsed into categories of cover and included terms, and used to construct a taxonomic model of personal attributes implicated in failure and marginality in student teachers. Initial categories which emerged were Extrapersonal, Irremediable, Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Attributes. Respondents' identified as critical the Intrapersonal and Interpersonal categories, which were further collapsed into three major attribute domains: Efficacy (including ego strength, locus of control, flexibility, and reflection) Relatedness (including empathy, self-assertion, and people-skills) and Heartfeltedness (including belief system, commitment, effort and passion.) Additional attributes identified by respondents as bridging and connecting the domains were imagination, authenticity, responsiveness and with-it-ness. Several themes emerged: 1) Respondents ascribe failure and marginality primarily to personal attributes, citing technical incompetence as causal only in combination with attribute deficits; 2) reluctance to judge subjectively produces formal evaluations that do not adequately reflect the role of personal attributes; 3) pressure to pass marginal students is seen as both cause and effect of a failure of the gatekeeping function; and 4) early identification of personal attributes likely to require and/or intractable to remediation is deemed essential.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and interpret the results of fall term student ratings of faculty teaching performance (n= 40,000) in order to determine whether relationships exist between a range of demographic variables and the ratings professors receive from students enrolled in their classes. A population of 645 full-time faculty and 273 teaching assistants from 11 colleges across Oregon State University were evaluated in fall term 1989-1990 by students who completed the university's Student Assessment of Teaching Instrument (SATI). The results from an analysis of demographic variables and faculty ratings revealed that students rated faculty significantly different in major and non-major courses. No differences were found between faculty ratings and student variables of GPA, expected grade, and percent of classroom attendance. Overall faculty ratings in large and small classes were not significantly different, although differences were found on several SATI instructional dimensions. Students in large classes rated faculty higher on clearly presenting course objectives/requirements, being well prepared and organized, clearly presenting subject matter concepts, and relevancy of examinations. Faculty in small classes received the highest ratings on the sensitivity of the instructor to student understanding material presented in class, or having more opportunity for student/faculty interaction. Statistical differences were found between graduate and undergraduate ratings of faculty teaching performance. Freshman class level in undergraduate courses and graduate students gave significantly higher faculty ratings than other levels. Significant gender differences were also found in student ratings of faculty in the Colleges of Engineering and Home Economics. Female faculty in Engineering received significantly higher ratings than male faculty by male students. Conversely, male faculty in Home Economics received significantly higher ratings than female faculty by female students. There was no significant difference between tenure status and faculty ratings; however a difference did appear when tenure was compared with faculty productivity rates (publications in refereed journals). No significant differences were found between publication rates and faculty rank. Differences in faculty publication rates appeared when gender of the faculty was analyzed. There was no significant difference between teaching performance ratings for all academic ranks of full-time faculty and non-international teaching assistants (NITAs). Statistical differences were noted for international teaching assistants (ITAs) and all academic ranks. Significant difference were found between NITAs and ITAs overall ratings as well as along several instructional dimensions of the SATI. / Graduation date: 1992

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There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purposes of this study were to plan and conduct activities that teachers and their supervisor could complete which would result in changed teaching and supervising behavior. The major purpose was to find a better way to record observations about teaching and learning in order to secure descriptive data on teaching behavior. The data obtained were to be shared with teachers in supervisor-teaching conferences. If teachers were acquainted with the various categories of questions, they might use them to change their instructional behavior. When a teacher gives his students an opportunity to rate the teacher's lessons, skills, techniques, and his personality, the teacher might use this information to change his teaching behavior and his being.The researcher studied several other observation systems and instruments and then constructed a Classroom Observation instrument consisting of five major divisions, also a Student's Observation form for rating a teacher's instruction. Three men and three women teachers, grades 10-12, and five men and five women teachers, grades 7-9, participated in the project by planning and teaching two different 20 minute segments which were also audio taped. The observer completed his observation form during the live teaching, and the teacher completed his observation form on each segment from the audio tape. All male and female students completed a rating sheet on their teacher's efforts at the conclusion of a 20 minute research segment.The researcher and participants had a conference about each observation as soon as the teacher listened to the tape and completed his form. They also shared the supervisor's tally of students' ratings. Conferences were concerned chiefly with comparing the researcher and teacher forms and studying the continuum ratings by students on 14 items concerning the lesson, teacher's abilities, and teacher's personality.The thesis findings presented a brief pre-research case study of each teacher followed by the analyzed data on four tables included with each case study. The tables show researcher and teachers (R-T) agreements and differences of opinion for both observations on schedules titled Classroom Interaction, Students' Behavior/Conduct, Classroom Intellectual Level, and Students' Observations.Analysis and study of the data have produced the following conclusions. The Classroom Observation form developed for this research has proved to be far superior to the supervisor's observation record used before the research. It provides for continuum rating scale information from both the observer and teacher in three areas: lesson analysis, students' reactions to lessons, and categories of questions, none of which had been considered before. Neither had this supervisor had students rate their teacher on his teaching efforts or ability prior to this research. The Student's Observation form may hold the most significant promise for facilitating teacher change. Teaching strengths and weaknesses have been revealed by these forms, but teachers seemed most each case study. The tables show researcher and teacher (R-T) agree concerned about the students' ratings of their lessons, abilities, and personality. Several teachers had recitations, participation, and attitudinal problems revealed by these forms of which they were not aware before the research.The researcher found that teaching could be submitted to systematic inquiry which produced considerable information in areas that had never before been examined by the supervisor. Supervisor, teacher, and student observation forms produced much more "feedback" than could be discussed in a 20 to 30 minute conference following the observations. Supervisor/teacher conferences before research had taken from 5 to 15 minutes for discussing routine matters and recommendations.Teaching behaviors can be identified by this system and these forms, and when behaviors are revealed and known, they could be improved or modified if the teacher so chooses. Whether or not teaching behaviors improve, persist, or deteriorate depends chiefly upon the teacher.There is evidence that information which the teacher received in the first conference had its effects upon his plans for the second presentation. Several teachers planned for more student involvement in their second lessons than they had in the first research session. Often where a teacher had aimed at skill improvement in one observation, he aimed his second session at concept development or vice versa. Whereas 10 of the 16 teachers had 27 more agreements with the researcher for classroom interactivity in the second observation, 5 teachers had fewer agreements with him in that area, and one had no change. For the area of students' behavior/conduct, 7 teachers had 15 more agreements with the researcher for the second session, 8 had 21 fewer agreements with him, and one had no change. These eight teachers became more critical of their students’ reactions to their lessons after the first observation conference, and the researcher frequently rated students higher than the teacher did in the second observation.Several teachers who had tallied verbal responses in only two or three question categories in the first observation (often in the lower levels) over-reacted to their new knowledge of question categories and tallied from one and one-half to four times more responses for the second observation (many in the upper levels) than the researcher did.There is some evidence to indicate that male students responded and reacted differently from female students to instruction in English depending upon the content or subject being considered. Girls responded better to pastoral lyric poetry than boys; boys responded as well as or better than girls to a philosophical discussion of "Hell" stimulated by Milton's Paradise Lost. Boys responded better in a discussion on "jobs" than girls did. Girls responded better on a discussion of the novel Light in the Forest than boys did.A larger percentage of girls than boys were complimentary about their teachers' lessons, abilities, and personalities although a majority of boys in most classes were not uncomplimentary about these abilities and traits.Students of traditional content/method English teachers have as high regard for their teachers' lessons, skills, and personality as students of innovative content/method English teachers have for those factors in their teachers. Students' judgements of an English teacher's ability and effectiveness do not depend upon whether their teacher is male or female.Students respond as well, or better, to an English teacher who is firm and definite in classroom order and control as to a teacher who permits freedom in student movement and behavior. Students appear to believe that they are included in lesson planning and in choosing materials for discussion as they become increasingly involved in the learning situation. This supervisor believes that supervision and teaching can be improved through using this system and forms developed for classroom observations.

One purpose of this study was to determine those elements of effective teaching which were held in common by researchers in the field of teacher effectiveness. A review of the work of sixteen research studies and reviews of studies from 1984 to 1990 clearly identified clarity of instruction, task orientation, use of varied and appropriate instructional strategies, positive teacher-student interaction, appropriate and timely feedback and evaluation, and monitoring student behavior as producing higher student achievement and more desirable student attitude and conduct. Assignment of homework, having high expectations for students, and using a range of questioning techniques were identified by only. 38% of the research studies, but were so strongly identified that these elements were also included in the study.The second phase of the study involved contacting school districts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio which contained schools that had been honored as effective schools by the United States Department of Education School Recognition Program and districts identified by a table of random numbers which contained no schools which had been so honored. Teacher evaluation instruments and instructions to evaluators were requested from each district. Ninety-three usable replies were received. The evaluation instruments and instructions to evaluators were analyzed to ascertain whether the identified elements of effective teaching were included in the documents.The following conclusions were drawn:1. Professional literature does identify elements of effective teaching which have been frequently supported by research.2. Identified elements of effective teaching which produce higher student achievement and more desirable student attitude and conduct do appear on evaluation instruments and instructions to evaluators in the midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.3. Sufficient evidence does not exist to conclude that the identified elements of effective teaching appear more often in evaluation instruments and instructions to evaluators in school districts which have school designated as effective schools than from comparable school districts which have not achieved such designation. / Department of Educational Leadership

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.