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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/177179 |
| Date | January 1970 |
| Creators | Julian, Malcolm M. |
| Contributors | McElhinney, James H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 209 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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