Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

8-25-1972

Abstract

Although it is widely conceded among educators that the problem of student interest and involvement in ongoing classroom activities is a crucial one, it has received little attention from researchers. This study was initiated to investigate the extent of student interest displayed in ongoing classroom activities, and to determine whether student interest may be related to certain kinds of behavior exhibited by their teachers. Five elementary classrooms were observed for one full school day. The behavior of the teacher and that of nine students, selected at random, was recorded in each classroom. The students observed were divided into groups of three. The attention of the observer shifted from group to group every five minutes. Each fifteen seconds during the day a teacher behavior and that of each of the three students in the group being observed at that time were classified and recorded. Behavior observed was classified and recorded according to the categories of an observational system devised by the investigator. Teacher behavior was classified as supporting, guiding, directing or controlling, Student behavior was classified as attending, responding, initiating, withdrawing or disrupting. Supporting and guiding teacher behavior were considered to exert indirect influence in the classroom while directing and controlling teacher behavior were considered to exert direct influence. Student attending, responding and initiating behavior were thought of collectively as approach behavior. Student withdrawing and disrupting behavior were considered collectively as avoidance behavior, Data collected through the observations were summarized and used in testing four null hypotheses. The null hypotheses were identical in form and suggested that the distribution of approach and avoidance behavior of students in classrooms where the teacher exhibited the highest frequencies of supporting, guiding, directing or controlling behavior, respectively, would not differ significantly from the distribution of student approach and avoidance behavior in the four classrooms where the teachers exhibited lower frequencies of the particular teacher behavior being considered. The null hypotheses were tested by chi-square analyses of the data. All four null hypotheses were rejected. The distribution of student approach and avoidance behavior did differ significantly in each of the classrooms where teachers exhibited higher frequencies of the behavior specified from the frequency of student approach and avoidance behavior in the four other classrooms in the sample. These findings cannot be generalized to any population other than that of the specific one involved in the study. The findings plus an informal analysis of the data led to suggesting further study in this area. Suggestions include: (1) correlational studies, (2) studies concerned with long range and short range effect of teacher behavior on student involvement, (3) studies dealing with the focus of student involvement and with student reaction to the environment of the classroom, (4) possible use of some measure of student involvement in evaluation, (5) descriptive studies of behavior in open concept school settings and (6) studies of the effects of teacher attitudes and cultural differences on student involvement.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Elementary Education

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

David Wayne Darling

Second Committee Member

Keith F. Auger

Third Committee Member

Catherine Ellen Loughlin

Fourth Committee Member

Leroy Condie

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